Abderhalden reaction
From Freepedia
The Abderhalden reaction is a now defunct blood test for pregnancy developed by Emil Abderhalden.
In 1909 Abderhalden found that on identification of a foreign protein in the blood, the body reacts with a defensive fermentation that causes disintegration of the protein. He developed the test in 1912. This test was apparently contentious soon after its development and a significant body of work was published both in support of and refuting the test's reliability. One such publication concluded "...the individual variations of both pregnant and non-pregnant sera make the results from both overlap so completely as to render the reaction, even with quantitative technique, absolutely indecisive for either positive or negative diagnosis of pregnancy."[1] The test's overall unreliability led to its being superseded in 1928 by the Ascheim-Zondek test.
References
- B.G. Firkin & J.A.Whitworth (1987). Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. Parthenon Publishing. ISBN 1-85070-333-7
- Who Named It?
- ^ Van Slyke, Donald D.; Vinograd-Villchur, Mariam; and Losee, J.R. (1915). The Abderhalden Reaction. Journal of Biological Chemistry 23 (1), 377-406. experimental evidence of the unreliability of the Abderhalden pregnancy test
