The difficulty in diagnosis of microbial infections is due to the wide variety of micro-organisms which infect man, and to the variation in host response to such infections. In cases where antibodies are rapidly produced and sustained for a long period of time, diagnosis based on these antibodies is useful. However, levels of antibody may vary drastically between individuals and may be present in the absence of clinical symptons. For absolute identification of a microbial infection, the ability to detect the presence of specific genes using dna probes is a very attractive technique but the current technology is not readily adapted to field use. Bio-star has a unique optical assay format that lends itself to the detection of antibodies produced to micro-organisms, to the detection of microbial antigens, or the detection of the micro-organisms genetic material. The optical format exists in two separate types: 1) a highly quantitative format and 2) a qualitative ot a semi-quantitative format. This assay's flexibility allows diagnosis of antibodies, antigens and genetic material based on multiple ligand/analyte combinations which are easily usable in field testing.
