Flow-injection immunoanalysis, a versatile and powerful tool for the automatic determination of environmental pollutants

Flow-injection immunoanalysis (FIIA) is a novel and automatic technique combining flow-injection approach with specific antibodies to complement the step of an immunoassay in a flow-through column format. This short review focuses on new FIIA contributions for environmental analysis problems with special emphasis on the pesticide residue determinations. Several major strategies in development of such technique with respect to the preparation of the antibody, immunoreactor support selection, novel coupling procedures for antibody and antigen immobilization, immunobinding conditions and elution and regeneration protocols, as well as assay formats and trace and detection schemes are taken into account. Some novel applications of the FIIA that appeared in more recent years as related to the field of pesticide residue analysis in environmental waters are outlined. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 11: 83–89, 1999