Stability of Stopped thyroid hormones in Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Abstract

Power outage is a common feature in the third world countries. Oftentimes after the preparation and completion/ and stopping of reaction in tube method of Immunometric assay there is power outage.  One wonders what should be done with the set up. How long can the stopped reaction wait before reading and the result will be useful? This aspect is not included in the method sheet. To answer this question, the  test is done as usual but the readings were taken at 0, 2hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days and 5 days.

The results were compared. It was evident that when read within two hours, the result remain unchanged but after 24hours the slope is depressed and all the readings wane. Effort should be made to take the readings within 24hours for reliable result.

Keywords: Stability, thyroid hormones, hormonal assay.