Patent ID: 7271009

Claim:
A method for analyzing a single patient sample to simultaneously determine levels of thyroid stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and thyroid peroxidase, as a collective indication of thyroid disorders, said method comprising: (a) incubating said sample with a mixture of particles in a first suspension, said mixture of particles comprised of groups (i) through (iv): (i) particles coated with anti-thyroid stimulating hormone, (ii) particles coated with anti-triiodothyronine, (iii) particles coated with anti-thyroxine, and (iv) particles coated with a mixture of a diluting agent and a member selected from the group consisting of thyroid peroxidase and anti-human IgG, the particles of each group distinguishable from the particles of each other group by a flow cytometry distinguishable characteristic that is independent of the coatings of subparagraphs (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv); (b) recovering said particles from said first suspension, and incubating said recovered particles with a mixture of labeled binding members capable of binding to the recovered particles in a second suspension said mixture of labeled binding members comprising: (1) labeled anti-thyroid stimulating hormone, (2) a labeled analog composition toward which anti-triiodothyronine and anti-thyroxine have immunological binding affinity, but in which said immunological binding affinity is less than that of anti-triiodothyronine toward triiodothyronine and of anti-thyroxine toward thyroxine, and (3) either labeled anti-human IgG when particles of group (iv) are coated with thyroid peroxidase, or labeled thyroid peroxidase when particles of group (iv) are coated with anti-human IgG; said diluting agent being inert toward said biological markers and said labeled binding members; and (c) recovering said particles from said second suspension and detecting the amount of label bound to said particles thus recovered from said second suspension while correlating by flow cytometry the amount of label thus detected to the group to which said label is bound, thereby simultaneously obtaining values individually representative of the levels of thyroid stimulating hormone, triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and anti-thyroid peroxidase.