Health Library

Quantitative nephelometry test

Quantitative immunoglobulins

Quantitative nephelometry is a lab test to quickly and accurately measure levels of certain proteins called immunoglobulins in the blood. Immunoglobulins are antibodies that help fight infection.

This test specifically measures the immunoglobulins IgM, IgG, and IgA.

Images

I Would Like to Learn About:

How the Test is Performed

A blood sample is needed.

How to Prepare for the Test

You may be asked not to eat or drink anything for 4 hours before the test.

How the Test will Feel

When the needle is inserted to draw blood, some people feel moderate pain. Others feel only a prick or stinging. Afterward, there may be some throbbing or slight bruising. This soon goes away.

Why the Test is Performed

The test provides a rapid and accurate measurement of the amounts of the immunoglobulins IgM, IgG, and IgA.

Normal Results

Normal results for the three immunoglobulins are:

• IgG: 700 to 1600 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), or 7.0 to 16.0 grams per liter (g/L)
• IgM: 40 to 230 mg/dL, or 0.40 to 2.3 g/L
• IgA: 103 to 501 mg/dL, or 1.0 to 5.0 g/L

The examples above show the common measurements for these test results. Normal value ranges may vary slightly among different labs. Talk to your health care provider about the meaning of your specific test results. Some labs use different measurements or test different samples.

What Abnormal Results Mean

An increased level of IgG may be due to:

• Chronic infection or inflammation
• Hyperimmunization (higher than normal number of specific antibodies)
• IgG multiple myeloma (a type of bone marrow cancer)
• Liver disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis

Decreased levels of IgG may be due to:

• Agammaglobulinemia (very low levels of immunoglobulins, a very rare disorder)
• Leukemia (blood cancer)
• Multiple myeloma (a type of bone marrow cancer)
• Preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy)
• Treatment with certain chemotherapy medicines

Increased levels of IgM may be due to:

• Mononucleosis
• Lymphoma (cancer of the lymph tissue)
• Waldenström macroglobulinemia (cancer of the white blood cells)
• Multiple myeloma
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Infection

Decreased levels of IgM may be due to:

• Agammaglobulinemia (very rare)
• Leukemia
• Multiple myeloma

Increased levels of IgA may be due to:

• Chronic infections, especially of the gastrointestinal tract
• Inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis
• Multiple myeloma

Decreased levels of IgA may be due to:

• Agammaglobulinemia (very rare)
• Hereditary IgA deficiency
• Multiple myeloma
• Gut disease that leads to protein loss

Other tests are needed to confirm or diagnose any of the conditions above.

Risks

There is little risk involved with having your blood taken. Veins and arteries vary in size from one person to another and from one side of the body to the other. Taking blood from some people may be more difficult than from others.

Other risks associated with having blood drawn are slight, but may include:

• Excessive bleeding
• Fainting or feeling lightheaded
• Multiple punctures to locate veins
• Hematoma (blood accumulating under the skin)
• Infection (a slight risk any time the skin is broken)

Related Information

References

Abraham RS. Assessment of functional immune responses in lymphocytes. In: Rich RR, Fleisher TA, Schroeder HW, Weyand CM, Corry DB, Puck JM, eds. Clinical Immunology. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 94.

McPherson RA. Specific proteins. In: McPherson RA, Pincus MR, eds. Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 24th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2022:chap 20.

Review Date: 5/1/2026  

Reviewed By: Warren Brenner, MD, Oncologist, Lynn Cancer Institute, Boca Raton, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, for Health Content Provider (www.urac.org). URAC's accreditation program is an independent audit to verify that A.D.A.M. follows rigorous standards of quality and accountability. A.D.A.M. is among the first to achieve this important distinction for online health information and services. Learn more about A.D.A.M.'s editorial policy, editorial process and privacy policy. A.D.A.M. is also a founding member of Hi-Ethics. This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- 2026 A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.