Patent ID: 7947465
Filing Date: 2011-05-24
Classification: G01N,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A method for assaying a sample of a human or mammalian bodily fluid to simultaneously detect the presence in said sample of any of a pre-selected panel of drugs or metabolites of said drugs, said method comprising: (A) performing a competitive binding assay according to either alternative (i) or alternative (ii), defined as wherein said microparticles are magnetically responsive and are divided into a plurality of subsets with one subset for each of said drugs of said panel, each subset distinguishable from the other subsets by a differentiation parameter and each subset coupled to either a distinct drug of said panel for alternative (i) or an antibody specific for a distinct drug of said panel for alternative (ii), (B) if alternative (i) is performed, incubating said microparticles with labeled ligands that have binding affinity for said antibodies and recovering said microparticles by magnetic separation from said first liquid medium, and if alternative (ii) is performed, recovering said microparticles by magnetic separation from said first liquid medium without first incubating said microparticles with labeled ligands, (C) suspending said recovered subsets of microparticles in a second liquid medium, and (D) simultaneously analyzing said subsets of microparticles in said second liquid medium by flow cytometry to detect, by way of said label or said labeled ligands, the presence of drugs of said panel in said sample while, by way of said differentiation parameters, differentiating between individual drugs of said panel among those detected.