Andrea A. Zachary , Renato M. Vega , Donna P. Lucas , and Mary S. Leffell
Abstract
Solid phase immunoassays for the detection and characterization of HLA-speci fi c antibodies provide greatly increased sensitivity, speci fi city, and time and reagent ef fi ciency, compared to the traditionally used cell-based methods. Testing is performed using commercially available test kits. The assays are of two general types: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and multianalyte bead. The types vary in both sensitivity
and equipment requirements.
While these assays afford great improvement over the cell-based assays, they can be confounded by interference from substances within the serum that result in high background reactivity. The high sensitivity of the assays also makes them more susceptible to environmental factors and operator variability. The user must be…