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Basic Knowledge On Thyroid ELISA Kits

By Jocelyn Davidson


ELISA is short for enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. This is a diagnostic medical test to see if there is any present antibody or antigen in the body of a person. Its purpose is for calibrating the immunity of a person in terms of diseases and viruses. It identifies the protein concentration in the bodily fluids of a person.

An example for this would be for HIV testing. It looks for the certain antibodies which is related to the HIV virus within the blood. In regards to the thyroid glands, what is used are Thyroid ELISA kits, which are very common. Other testing kits are available as well for other parts of the body.

In general, ELISA is also used for tests in illegal drug use. It also helps determine the allergic reactions towards food for a person. It is widely used as a tool in plant pathology, and also in quality control check in some industries. How to determine this is through the intensity of the color change of each sample of the patient.

Two types of ELISA tests are widely used in laboratories. The first one is indirect which detects the antibodies in a given sample. An example for indirect is HIV testing, where it detects the antibodies in the sample which are against the virus. The second one is called capture or sandwich. It detects the antigens and then capture them between two antibodies. A good sample for this would be on pregnancy tests which detects the hCG or the human chorionic gonadotropin.

Blood is the usual collection, as well as urine samples. These samples are then placed in a test tube or test slide, and then sent to the laboratory for the testing and analysis. At the laboratory, it will be tested if the targeted antigen or antibody is present within the blood or urine.

The human blood samples inside the test tubes will be placed in a centrifuge to separate the different parts of it and for it to get a blood serum. A blood serum is a sample that has the clotting feature taken out of it. The high speed from the centrifuge separates the cells and plasma, making it easier to extract the serum.

There are enzyme substrate combinations that can be used for detection. The one enzyme used the most is Horseradish Peroxidase. This cleaves or separates the substrate molecules Ortho Phenylenediamine Dihydrochloride, or OPD, and Tetramethylbenzidine, or TMB, from each other. The result would be a yellow color when these two are separated. Then a plate reader is used to measure the optical density.

When the patient is thought to have a known disease or condition, the blood or urine sample will have specific antibodies which will react to the testings. These antibodies will latch itself to the antigens which are the specific bonding agents in the test. After that, the samples will be washed with a solution in order for it to remove everything else except for the antigens or also the antibodies.

Enzyme solutions would then be applied to the sample to determine if the color changes accordingly whether there it is a positive or negative result. Although there is a possibility for the test samples to return a false positive. This is when the sample of the patient does not have the infection but returns with a positive result. But regardless, ELISA tests are still considered the most reliable in the immunology community.




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