Development and evaluation of a simple, direct, solid-phase radioimmunoassay of serum cortisol from readily available reagents

A simple, rapid solid-phase radioimmunoassay for serum cortisol was developed using cortisol antibody and commercially available radioiodinated cortisol ligand. The assay involves a 1-h incubation at ambient temperature, using the antibody covalently linked by the easily performed carbonyldiimidazole method, to microcrystalline cellulose. A detailed comparison of the accepted 0.125 mol/l citrate, pH 4.0, and an alternative 0.1 mol/l phosphate/8-anilinonaphthalene sulphonic acid, pH 7.4, diluent demonstrated similar precision and recovery. Phosphate, pH 7.4 diluent was adopted as the diluent of choice, since it was economical of antibody and maintained good precision over a wider working range of cortisol concentration. (Auth.)