Method and apparatus for agglutination immunoassay
First Claim
1. An agglutination immunoassay comprising the steps of:
- contacting, in a container, a test sample suspected of containing a desired analyte and a reagent comprising sensitized magnetic-material containing particles, said sensitized magnetic-material containing particles including a binding reagent which reacts with and binds to said desired analyte;
precipitating said sensitized magnetic-material containing particles on the bottom of said container by the application of magnetic force;
allowing said container to stand at an inclination so as to cause the precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles to flow in a flowing direction along the bottom of said container to form a developed pattern of said precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles;
obtaining a representative length of said developed pattern of said precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles in the flowing direction, from image data of said developed pattern obtained by imaging means; and
detecting the presence or absence of an immune reaction from said representative length of said developed pattern, thereby detecting the presence or absence of said desired analyte in said test sample.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An agglutination immunoassay method and apparatus therefor in which there are conducted the steps of contacting, in a container, a test sample suspected of containing a desired analyte and a reagent comprising sensitized magnetic-material containing particles capable of reacting with and binding to a desired analyte; precipitating the particles on the bottom of the container by the application of magnetic force; allowing the container to stand at an inclination so as to cause the particles to flow along the bottom of the container to form a developed pattern of the particles; obtaining a representative length of the developed pattern of the particles by an imaging device; and detecting the presence or absence of an immune reaction from the representative length of the pattern of the particles which has flowed from the bottom of the container, thereby detecting the presence or absence of the desired analyte in the test sample.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. An agglutination immunoassay comprising the steps of:
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contacting, in a container, a test sample suspected of containing a desired analyte and a reagent comprising sensitized magnetic-material containing particles, said sensitized magnetic-material containing particles including a binding reagent which reacts with and binds to said desired analyte; precipitating said sensitized magnetic-material containing particles on the bottom of said container by the application of magnetic force; allowing said container to stand at an inclination so as to cause the precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles to flow in a flowing direction along the bottom of said container to form a developed pattern of said precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles; obtaining a representative length of said developed pattern of said precipitated sensitized magnetic-material containing particles in the flowing direction, from image data of said developed pattern obtained by imaging means; and detecting the presence or absence of an immune reaction from said representative length of said developed pattern, thereby detecting the presence or absence of said desired analyte in said test sample. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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Specification