Clinical Biochemistry
An almost limitless number of
chemicals can be found in humans and animals, and during the study of clinical
biochemistry students learn how to detect, analyze and quantify many of those
chemicals associated with health, disease, injury and infection. Some
determinations are routine such as measuring blood glucose to detect or monitor
diabetes and separating "good" and "bad" cholesterol to determine the risk of
heart disease. More specialized testing techniques are those required to measure
blood alcohol or to detect small amounts of illicit drugs. Clinical chemists
must not only know how to perform and troubleshoot sophisticated analytical
techniques but they also must be able to correlate specific patterns of results
with health and disease in order to insure that only quality data is reported to
other professionals such as patient care providers, law enforcement officials
and veterinarians.
 
|
