ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses an area of spectroscopy (flourescence coupled with enzyme-linked immunoassay techniques) which is finding widespread use in the medical diagnostic industry. Fluorescence analysis is, therefore, undergoing a renaissance in the laboratory with two principle approaches. The first is the replacement of the radioisotopic label with a fluorescent label and performing similar types of analyses as radioimmunoassay (RIA). A second approach has been the use of enzymes in place of radioactive tags. The chapter reviews system which uses enzyme labels and fluorescence detection to achieve very rapid and highly sensitive immunoassays. One of the problems which has limited the acceptance of fluorescence techniques in the clinical laboratory has been the negative experiences many clinical chemists encountered with contamination in the early use of fluorescence techniques. Extensive method comparisons have been conducted against RIA methods to assess potential interferences.
