Definition - What does agglutination mean?
In workplace drug and alcohol testing, agglutination refers to the process by which the presence of drugs and alcohol are detected in a worker's body using samples of blood, saliva, or urine. Agglutination specifically refers to the manner in which latex beads coated with specific antibodies or antigens will stick together in clumps during drug testing if a specific substance is present in the sample.
SureHire explains agglutination
When drug tests are conducted in the workplace, or an off-site laboratory facility, one of the methods of detecting drugs is by the latex agglutination test. This test can be performed with urine, blood, or saliva samples. During the testing process, latex beads are coated with a specific antibody or antigen. If the sample contains the specific substances being tested for, the latex beads will "agglutinate" or clump together. If the specific substances are not present, the latex beads will not agglutinate.
