Patent ID: 6855562
Filing Date: 2005-02-15
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. An agglutination immunoassay method of quantifying a predetermined antigen in a sample of whole blood, comprising the steps of: providing a sample of the whole blood: adding a hemolysis reagent and a latex reagent comprising of insoluble latex carriers onto which antibodies specifically reacting with the predetermined antigen in the sample of whole blood have been immobilized, directly to the sample of the whole blood without any pre-treatment of the whole blood; hemolysing the whole blood sample with the hemolysis reagent to hemolyse the blood corpuscles; forming a reaction product wherein a predetermined antigen in the hemolysed whole blood sample specifically reacts with the antibodies immobilized onto the insoluble latex carriers; irradiating the reaction products in the sample with radiation which includes a wavelength within a range of 700 nm to 1000 nm which is substantially free from absorption by both hemoglobin and the hemolysis reagent; and measuring only in the wavelength range which is substantially free from absorption by both hemoglobin and the hemolysis reagent, an absorbance of the incident radiation through the reaction product to determine the quantity of antigens in the sample.