Latex test

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The latex test , also known as the latex agglutination test , is a laboratory medicine procedure for the detection and visualization of antigen-antibody reactions .

functionality

To detect a substance being sought, the antibodies or antigens required for the detection reaction are first bound to latex particles, which creates a slightly milky-cloudy solution. The finished detection solution is now industrially produced and is available for numerous tests from various manufacturers. If the liquid to be examined is now mixed with the test solution, a flocculation, usually visible to the naked eye , occurs during agglutination , the precipitate , since the latex used is significantly larger and, when clumping, more visible than the small immunoglobulins . Automated detection methods analyze the agglutination by means of photometry , whereby the smallest samples in the nano to microliter range can be analyzed. Correspondingly more sample material and test solution are required for a result that is visible without technical assistance.
In immunochemistry, "latex" does not stand for polyisoprene , as it usually does , but for a suspension of small particles (mostly polystyrene ).

application

This procedure is used in the following tests that are common today:

Sources and individual references

  1. LaborMedicine . Schattauer Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7945-6656-3 , p. 75.