Type of agglutination in which particulate and soluble antigen compete for soluble antibody.
Note: Typically, it is soluble antigen in the test medium which reacts first with the soluble antibody, inhibiting the agglutination of indicator particles. With viral hemagglutination inhibition assays, host antibodies resulting from a specific infection are the most common forms of agglutination inhibition assays. In this case, viral-specific antibodies block the sites on the virus that agglutinate erythrocytes.
Source:
PAC, 2018, 90, 1121. 'Terminology of bioanalytical methods (IUPAC Recommendations 2018)' on page 1135 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2016-1120)