Estimation of relative potency with sequential dilution errors in radioimmunoassay

Sequential dilution is a very common procedure in radioimmunoassay, in which the dilution error will be accumulated from the highest to the lowest concentration. A simulated example in relative potency determination is used to demonstrate the potentially wrong conclusion that can be drawn, when the dilution error is not properly included in the model. A Bayesian method is used and an alternative approximation via maximum likelihood is proposed. An alternative experimental design is recommended to increase the precision of the inference.