Automation of steroid radioimmunoassays for clinical and research purposes.

In recent years an exponential increase in the research and clinical application of radioimmunoassays has created a demand for manipulative aids, to increase the general efficiency of the technique as well as precision of the determinations. At present a number of systems exist for sample preparation and the automation of assays. However, due to inherent problems of carry-over, priming, cleaning and the necessity for chemically inert components most of these systems tend to be rather inflexible. The instrument of choice ought therefore to be extremely versatile and provide the operator with a wide spectrum of alternatives, in order to optimize the initial capital outlay. Moreover, in the light of technological developments in the field of simultaneous, multisample gamma-counting and data processing, it is anticipated that a new generation of multisample processors will emerge of sufficient flexibility to accommodate the wide variety of assay protocols in present use. In this paper, we have reviewed the problems encountered in the development of automated techniques for the radioimmunoassay of steroid hormones, and have presented a preliminary description of a versatile modular discrete instrument for the automation of radioimmunoassays, which is based on simultaneous multisample preparation, and subsequent counting and data processing.

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