Automated Immunoassay Analyzers

Enzyme immunoassays (EIA) have great potential for automation in diagnostic microbiology laboratories, and a number of semiautomated and fully automated immunoassay analyzers are now commercially available for the performance of a variety of viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic antibody and/or antigen detection tests. The majority of the automated immunoassay analyzers provide walk-away simplicity to perform assays from sample processing through interpretation of results. The instruments can automatically generate work lists of specimens to be tested, pipette specimens from primary tubes and dilute the samples, dispense all reagents, time the incubations at a desired temperature, shake the assay vessels if needed, perform washes, and read and store the final results. The use of automated immunoassay analyzers can be advantageous to the laboratory that has a shortage of trained medical technologists or that needs to reduce costs or improve the throughput and turnaround time for test results.