Immunological switch for controlling the reporting of test results
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorThomas P. Hartz, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Test reagents incorporate immunological materials capable of recognizing specific antigens or antibodies in test sample. The materials are selected to respond differently to a control product such that they are used as a switch to control the operation of an analytical instrument.
Claims5
A method for controlling the number of different analytical determinations reported by an analytical device, having a plurality of test cells and capable of making multiple different analytical determinations using immunoassays on a sample, using the, result of a single immunoassay within said analytical device, said immunoassay having at least first and second reagents, the method comprising the steps of:
- positioning a first reagent of the immunoassay in a test cell within the analytical device;
- performing an immunological analysis on a test sample having the second reagent of the immunoassay;
- comparing the result of the immunoassay for the test sample with a defined threshold quantity;
- reporting all multiple different analytical determinations on the test sample if the detected immunoassay exceeds the threshold quantity;
- and
- reporting only a subset of the multiple different analytical determinations if the detected immunoassay fails to exceed the threshold quantity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.