ABSTRACT
This report is a summary of 10 years of experience with the complement fixation test as adopted for the immunoassay of HCG in serum. It is based on published as well as unpublished material. The discussion centers mainly around methodological problems, criteria of reliability, and clinical observations.
It is our impression that the complement fixation test is a reasonably rapid and simple technical procedure. It is standard practice in every bacteriological and virological laboratory. The precision of the HCG assay is high. Its accuracy is good. The complement fixation assay, as reported here, fulfils the criteria of specificity. It has been evaluated by means of serological techniques and through comparison between biopotency and immunopotency of HCG in serum with reference to a common standard. Its application for routine as well as research work is illustrated.
