Analytical Sensitivity Limits for Lateral Flow Immunoassays

A plethora of literature describes the use of lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA). Only a fraction of that contains information about possible analytical sensitivity or limit of detection. Accordingly, we have undertaken a comprehensive survey of the literature in PubMed and present here that fraction that has information on limits of detection or analytical sensitivity. Further detail of the search strategy is at http://www.finddiagnostics.org/news/resources/gordon\_michael\_latflow_immunoassays.pdf. In general, there is a need for rapid tests, such as LFIA, capable of being performed by unskilled operators yet providing rapid and reliable results in areas such as diagnosis of diseases in developing countries (1)(2), emergency room use (3), and biodefense(4). The utility of such tests is enhanced by the ability to determine analytes at very low concentrations. In LFIA, sample is added, the analyte and label are subjected to chromatography-like …