Antibody assays are relevant to a wide range of clinical issues, although there remain large gaps in their availability in clinical laboratories and are rarely offered for patient or near-patient access. Specific antibody assays are useful for monitoring infectious, autoimmune, inflammatory, immune deficiency, and allergic diseases as well as for spontaneous responses to tumor antigens in cancer diagnosis, to alloantigens in organ transplantation, and to therapeutic macromolecules. However, antibody assays performed in centralized clinical laboratories can be prolonged, labor intensive, and costly, which slows the diagnostic process and may restrict its use for a large segment of the population. An alternative would be the availability of testing capability while the patient remains in a clinic or even a remote or possibly at-home setting. The general advantages, characteristics, and challenges of point-of-care (POC) testing have been well delineated.

Chapter Contents:

• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Challenges in antibody measurement by POC technology
• 4.3 Detection of antibody utilizing electrochemical methodology
• 4.4 Electrochemical biosensors for specific antibody with potential as POC instruments
• 4.5 Perspectives on future development of POC devices for antibody measurement
• References

Inspec keywords: cancer; biochemistry; macromolecules; proteins; biological organs; patient diagnosis; electrochemical sensors; tumours

Other keywords: near-patient access; allergic diseases; cancer diagnosis; infectious diseases; immune deficiency; alloantigens; organ transplantation; therapeutic macromolecules; point-of-care electrochemical sensors; autoimmune diseases; tumor antigens; antibody detection; inflammatory diseases; antibody assays; at-home setting

Subjects: Patient diagnostic methods and instrumentation; Physical chemistry of biomolecular solutions and condensed states; Electrochemical analytical methods; Chemical sensors; Biomedical measurement and imaging; Chemical sensors