page_title: Hook effect
hierarchical_section_title: Hook effect
caption_attribution_description: English: Hook Effect
context_page_description: The hook effect or the prozone effect is an immunologic phenomenon whereby the effectiveness of antibodies to form immune complexes is sometimes impaired when concentrations of an antibody or an antigen are very high. The formation of immune complexes stops increasing with greater concentrations and then decreases with extremely high concentrations, producing a hook shape on a graph of measurements. There are versions of the hook effect with excess antibodies and versions with excess antigens. An important practical relevance of the phenomenon is as a type of interference that plagues certain immunoassays and nephelometric assays, resulting in false negatives or inaccurately low results. Other common forms of interference include antibody interference, cross-reactivity and signal interference. The phenomenon is caused by very high concentrations of a particular analyte or antibody and is most prevalent in one-step immunoassays.
context_section_description: The hook effect or the prozone effect is an immunologic phenomenon whereby the effectiveness of antibodies to form immune complexes is sometimes impaired when concentrations of an antibody or an antigen are very high. The formation of immune complexes stops increasing with greater concentrations and then decreases with extremely high concentrations, producing a hook shape on a graph of measurements. There are versions of the hook effect with excess antibodies and versions with excess antigens. An important practical relevance of the phenomenon is as a type of interference that plagues certain immunoassays and nephelometric assays, resulting in false negatives or inaccurately low results. Other common forms of interference include antibody interference, cross-reactivity and signal interference. The phenomenon is caused by very high concentrations of a particular analyte or antibody and is most prevalent in one-step (sandwich) immunoassays.
caption: Illustration of hook effect adapted from Schiettecatte et al.[1]
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