What You Need To Know About Thyroid ELISA Kits

By Jocelyn Davidson


Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay is a process in medical diagnostics where specific protein molecules are calibrated or if they are present in a given sample. This is mainly used in figuring out if there is any disease or innate conditions in a person to adhere adequate medication as soon as possible.

HIV tests are one of the many examples of ELISA. It detects antibodies which are connected to the virus that are inside the blood of the patient. As for thyroid glands, Thyroid ELISA kits are used in most laboratories for further studying the present protein molecules. With this, other various kits are existent depending on what use they are.

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.

One common enzyme used for detection is the Horseradish Peroxidase. It separates the Ortho Phenylenediamine Dihydrochloride from Tetramethylbenzidine. The resulting color would be yellow which can be measured also for its optical density using a plate reader. Through light absorbance, OPD is measured in a wavelength of 490 nanometers and TMB is measured at 450 nanometers.

If the patient has already been determined to have a disease or condition, the samples of their blood or urine will have certain antibodies which will be the ones to react to the test. These antibodies will stick to the antigens, which these antigens are bonding agents for the entire test. A solution is used to wash away everything in it except for the antigens, or also the antibodies that are sticking to the antigens.

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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