title: Pregnancy testing with hCG--future prospects.
abstract: Pregnancy tests for human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) are used widely in hospital and home settings. Assays measuring hCG also have uses in prenatal screening and oncology. The output from three recent international workshops provides a framework for reliable measurement of hCG. Requirements for future hCG assays include use of clear descriptive nomenclature, informed selection of antibodies of well-defined epitope specificities, and design of robust methods. Tests will be precisely characterized and calibrated in SI units using six International Reference Reagents (IRR) for hCG and variants, and the Fifth International Standard for hCG 07/364, making it possible to report clinical results in molar units. These measures will help to increase patient safety by reducing the risk of erroneous or misleading hCG results.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Aging Research, University of Innsbruck, Rennweg 10, A6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Electronic address: peter.berger@uibk.ac.at.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: UK NEQAS for Peptide Hormones, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, 51 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh EH16 4SA, UK. Electronic address: C.Sturgeon@ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Catharine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sturgeon
mesh_terms: D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011258:Pregnancy Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*
chemical_list: D006063:Chorionic Gonadotropin
keywords: antibody standardisation; fifth IS 07/364 for hCG; first IRR for hCG; hCG variants; pregnancy testing