Heterophilic antibodies as a source of error in immunoassay

Conference · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1985 · J. Nucl. Med.; (United States)

OSTI ID:7031514

Witherspoon, L; Witkin, M; Shuler, S; Neely, H; Gilbert, S

Antibodies directed against IgG used in an immunoassay, when present in patient serum, may lead to erroneous estimates of analyte by combining with the primary antibody and effectively reducing its concentration. In two patients with anti-rabbit IgG the authors obtained apparently elevated TSH, LH, and FSH estimates using competitive, second antibody kits Dilutional parallelism could not be demonstrated using these kits. Normal TSH estimates were obtained using one of several IRMAs and a competitive assay which included rabbit IgG in the buffer. Normal LH and FSH estimates (including dilutional parallelism) were obtained using competitive assay kits which included rabbit IgG in the buffer. The authors were not able to repair the antibody-limited kits by adding rabbit IgG, as the second antibody concentration was inadequate to precipitate the added IgG Heterophilic antibody directed against the assay antibody presents a significant potential problem in immunoassay. This problem is most pronounced in antibody limited systems and may be avoided by the addition of same-species IgG. The laboratory user may not be able to make this addition unless the separation step is reoptomized. Antibody excess (IRMA) systems are effected if the offending antibody is present in concentrations sufficient to saturate the extracting antibody. Practically, a heterophilic antibody must be suspected by demonstrating nonparallelism. This potential problem should be more widely appreciated.

• Research Organization: Ochsner Clinic, New Orleans, LA
• OSTI ID: 7031514
• Report Number(s): CONF-850611-; TRN: 87-010707
• Journal Information: J. Nucl. Med.; (United States), Vol. 26:5; Conference: 32. annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, 2 Jun 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
RADIOIMMUNOASSAY
ACCURACY
EVALUATION
ANTIBODIES
BIOASSAY
BLOOD
ERRORS
IMMUNOLOGY
IMMUNOTHERAPY
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIOIMMUNOTHERAPY
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BODY FLUIDS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
IMMUNOASSAY
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
MATERIALS
MEDICINE
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
RADIOASSAY
RADIOIMMUNOLOGY
RADIOLOGY
RADIOTHERAPY
THERAPY
TRACER TECHNIQUES
550601* - Medicine- Unsealed Radionuclides in Diagnostics