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(′an·ə′līt)

(analytical chemistry) The sample being analyzed. The science of chemical characterization and measurement; qualitative analysis is concerned with the description of chemical composition in terms of elements, compounds, or structural units, whereas quantitative analysis is concerned with the measurement of amount.


 
 
Medical Dictionary: an·a·lyte
(ăn'ə-līt')
n.

A substance or chemical constituent that is undergoing analysis.

 

A substance or material to be analyzed; a molecule to be analyzed by mass spectrometry.

 
Wikipedia: analyte

An analyte is a substance or chemical constituent that is determined in an analytical procedure, such as a titration. For instance, in an immunoassay, the analyte may be the ligand or the binder, while in blood glucose testing, the analyte is glucose. In medicine, analyte often refers to the type of test being run on a patient, as the test is usually determining a chemical substance in the human body.

An analyte (in clinical chemistry preferentially referred to as component) itself cannot be measured, but a measurable property of the analyte can. For instance, one cannot measure a table (analyte-component) but, the height, width, etc. of a table can be measured. Likewise, one cannot measure glucose but can measure the glucose concentration. In this example "glucose" is the component and "concentration" is the kind-of-property. In laboratory and layman jargon the "property" is often left out provided the omission does not lead to an ambiguity of what property is measured.

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Copyrights:

Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Medical Dictionary. The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Analyte" Read more

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