Summary: Polystyrene (latex) particles coated with human anti-aj-microglobulin antibodies are used in an automated "kinetic" assay for a r microglobuiin in urine. For values below 12 mg/1, there was no significant difference between two kinds of standard, but above 12 mg/1 the results depend on the origin of the ai-microglobulin standard.Correlation between values obtained with both standards was good (r 2 = 0.968). The method has a between-run imprecision (CV) of 11 -16%. Comparison with two commercial enzyme immunoassays gave a bias of -10% to + 40%, while two nephelometric methods differed by 0% to 23%, possibly because the standards used in these methods were of different origin. These results indicate the necessity of standardization of the determination of aimicroglobulin. The detection limit of our method was 0.8 mg/1, enabling the application of the method for epidemiological investigations.