Difference between Specificity & Selectivity
Kanchan Soni
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Kanchan Soni
Assistant General Manager - Bioanalytical II Project Manager II LC/MS Scientist II Reviewer II Author II Paperless II SDMS II WLIMS II GXP
Specificity:- The degree of interference by other substances also present in the sample while analysing the analyte. E.g., imagine you are carrying a bunch of keys and only one key among the bunch can open the lock of your door. If there is a method that can identify the correct key for the lock, it could be termed “specific”. In other words, the method is specific for the key among bunch of other keys. For specificity, the identification of other keys in the bunch is not required. Selectivity :-The analytical method should be able to differentiate the analyte(s) of interest from endogenous components in the matrix or other components in the sample.In other words, we can say selectivity is like specificity except that the identification of all components in a mixture is mandatory. From the example above, selectivity requires identification of all the keys in the bunch and not just the one that opens the lock.
It is important to understand that the term specificity is used to tell something about the method’s ability responding to one single analyte only, while selectivity is used when the method is able to respond to several different analytes in the sample
Program Manager @ Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited | Project Management, Biosimilars
4 年The descriptions are very apt thank you for this. But I have a little add up to the description. When you are saying specificity is the capability of the method to specifically pick up the analyte of interest then why would we need the method to analyze multiple analytes. Selectivity actually talks about the interference from the matrix in specifically picking up the analyte of interest. It gives information on degree of interference from the matrix in the given assay conditions and dictates the appropriateness of the MRD picked up.
Director Non-Clinical GLP/ GCLP QA
4 年Thanks for sharing
Associate Scientist at Syngene International Limited
4 年????