Immunochromatographic techniques--a critical review.

Hyphenated techniques have become very popular during the last decade. Nevertheless, the use of biochemical methods, such as immunoassays, in conjunction with instrumental methods, such as chromatography, have not gained widespread acceptance. This review critically discusses many of the implemented and potential options for such coupled systems or components, which might be useful for such systems, including immunoaffinity extraction, immunoaffinity chromatography, immunochemical detectors, immunoblotting, receptor assays, enzyme inhibition assays, displacement assays, flow-injection immunoassays, miniaturized techniques and stationary phases such as restricted access materials or molecularly imprinted polymers. The performance of immunochromatographic systems is discussed regarding their ability to solve highly complex and demanding analytical problems.