An immunoassay comprises the steps of: (a) mixing a whole blood sample
with sensitized insoluble carrier particles smaller than erythrocytes to
cause an immune agglutination reaction; (b) introducing the resulting
immune agglutination reaction mixture including agglutinated particles
and unagglutinated particles to a flow cell, irradiating the particles
passing through the flow cell with laser light, and detecting scattered
lights generated thereby; (c) setting a threshold value for
distinguishing unagglutinated particles from agglutinated particles and a
threshold value for distinguishing the agglutinated particles from blood
cells with regard to intensity of the scattered light; and (d)
distinguishing and counting the unagglutinated particles, the
agglutinated particles and the blood cells from the scattered lights
detected in the step (b), in reference to the threshold values set in the
step (c).