A fully automated analyzer for multiple detection of allergen-specific immunoglobulin E

Abstract

Allergy testing is important for evidence-based care and treatment. In this paper, we report a new clinical laboratory instrument, AdvanSure AlloStation Smart, which is used for a multiple allergen-specific immunoglobulin (IgE) assay. For efficient automation of immunoblot procedures, a novel tilting carousel technology was incorporated. The analyzer showed 100.5-101.7% of pipetting accuracy, no sample carryover, and 0.2-3.2% coefficient of variation of optical precision. Assay performance on the system was comparable with that of a single allergen test, ImmunoCAP for 23 allergens. The slope and the intercept of this comparison were 0.994 and 0.070, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient between two methods was r = 0.836. The coefficient of variation of intra-assay precision ranged from 3.2% to 11.1% and that of inter-assay precision varied from 4.0% to 17.6%. The AdvanSure AlloStation Smart provides a simple and reliable multiple assay platform to monitor allergen-specific IgE profiles.