What is immunoagglutination?

Answer 1

It is the method of testing for the presence of Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG), which is elevated during pregnancy.

This process invovles, firstly, incubation of a urine sample and anti-HCG (complementary antibodies that will bind to the HCG hormone). After incubation an 'Hapton Carrier-Conjugate' is added. This molecule has many HCG residues bound to it.

If the patient is pregnant, their urine will be concetrated with HCG and it will be to the antibody, causing most of the antibodies to be bound during the addition of the conjugate. The outcome is that there is no visible clumping of the conjugate therefore the patient will be diagnosed as pregnant.

If the patient is not pregnant, the antibody will bind to the conjugates when they are added, causing the larger molecules to be bound together, and form visible clumps.