What are titers?

[anniekim]

Once again, sorry for my ignorance, but could someone please explain to me what are titers? Are titers the same as IgG antibodies, or are IgG antibodies and IgG titers two different things?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[WillowJ]

A titer is a measurment of how much of something is there, or a "quantitative" test as we might say in a chemistry lab. They perform dilutions and see how many dilutions they can go through and still detect the antibody or whatever it is they are testing. Thus a titer result is displayed as 1:160, 1:640, or whatever... meaning they can find it in as small a dilution as one part in a 160 dilution (or whatever the second number is).

So an IgG titer is a measurment of how much IgG antibody they found.

 

[anniekim]

Thanks Willow, very helpful.