Clinical application handbook
Shimadzu has released the first Application Handbook “Clinical”. It contains most advanced technologies and solutions such as chromatography, mass spectrometry, spectroscopy and life sciences instruments. With nearly 140 pages, the Application Handbook “Clinical” covers 47 real life applications related to hot subjects such as Vitamin D, steroids, immunosuppressants, catecholamines and amino acids analysis. The book is free of charge and can be downloaded (17 MB) at www.shimadzu. eu/clinical.
In clinical applications, analytical instruments unfold a multitude of benefits. They support the quality of human life. The concentration of medications in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is assured, even though this may change according to age and health conditions and is dependent on gender, genetic constitution or interferences with other drugs. They help to save lives, particularly when it comes to time-critical situations, e.g. through acute intoxication, medical or drug abuse. They analyse over- and undersupply of vitamins, minerals and trace elements. They are applied in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics and also uncover fraud in sports, particularly in animal or human doping. At the same time, analytical systems support health protection of animals and humans, even in the long-term. Clinical applications benefit from Shimadzu’s complete portfolio covering chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC, GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, HPLC, UHPLC, LC-MS, LC-MS/MS); spectroscopy (UVVis, FTIR, AAS, EDX, ICP-OES); life sciences (MALDI-(TOF)-MS); microchip- electrophoresis; biopharmaceutical (aggregate sizer); observation of medical microbubbles in targeted drug delivery using the HPV-X2 ultra high-speed camera.
Shimadzu breaks new grounds by rethinking the use of mature technologies to develop new unique systems such as the iMScope TRIO. It combines an optical microscope with a mass spectrometer for insights on the molecular level.
For next-generation brain science, Shimadzu provides LABNIRS, an imaging technology for visualization of brain functions by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Some analytical technologies used in the clinical world
- Chromatographic separation in gas phase for analysis of volatile and semi volatile components is in use in the clinical field since many years. Gas chromatography is a key technique for quantitative analysis of alcohol in blood.
- HPLC and UHPLC systems are able to quantitatively analyse substances in blood, serum, plasma and urine containing multiple compounds by separating and detecting target substances. Shimadzu offers a wide variety of application- specific systems such as automated sample pretreatment systems for amino acid analysis or on-line sample trapping for quantification of drugs or metabolites.
- Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a hyphenated technique combining the separating power of GC with the detection power of MS to identify different substances within a sample. Mass spectrometry is a wide-ranging analytical technique which involves the production, subsequent separation and identification of charged species according to their mass to charge (m/z) ratio. It is well known for analysis of drug abuse.
- Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is an analytical chemistry technique that combines the physical separation capabilities of LC with the mass analysis capabilities of MS, bringing together very high sensitivity and high selectivity. Its application is oriented towards the separation, general detection and potential identification of compounds of particular masses in the presence of other chemicals (e.g. complex mixtures like blood, serum, plasma or urine). Its use is spreading in the clinical field (research and routine) as a replacement of immunoassays thanks to the capability of multiplexing analysis and reduced risk of cross-reaction in immuno-assays.
