- Analyte
An analyte is a substance or
chemical constituent that is determined in an analytical procedure, such as atitration . For instance, in animmunoassay , the analyte may be theligand or thebinder , while inblood glucose testing, the analyte isglucose . Inmedicine , "analyte" often refers to the type of test being run on a patient, as the test is usually determining achemical substance in the human body.An analyte (in clinical chemistry preferentially referred to as component) itself cannot be measured, but a measurable property of the analyte can. For instance, one cannot measure a table (analyte-component) but, the height, width, etc. of a table can be measured. Likewise, one cannot measure glucose but can measure the glucose concentration. In this example "glucose" is the component and "concentration" is the kind-of-property. In laboratory and layman jargon the "property" is often left out provided the omission does not lead to an ambiguity of what property is measured.
ee also
*
Analytical chemistry
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.