Clinical Biochemistry

Clinical Biochemistry is a branch of biochemistry that deals mainly with the study of body fluid and other biological materials for diagnosis of diseases and therapy. It is also known as medical biochemistry, pathology, blood chemistry etc. Clinical biochemistry includes chemical pathology, enzyme kinetics; immunochemistry; lipid, protein, and carbohydrate test; toxicology and drug testing etc.

Different modes of Cellular transport

• Chemical Pathology:

  The tests include body fluids like serum, plasma, sweat, semen, breast milk, gastric juice, mucus, saliva and many others.

• Enzyme kinetics:

  Enzymes are biomolecules that act like catalysts in all metabolic reactions taking place within a living body. The serum levels of various enzymes are measured for diagnostic purpose. The presence of these enzymes in the serum indicates that tissue or cellular damage has occurred resulting in the release of intracellular components into the blood.

• Immunochemistry:

  It is a branch of chemistry that deals with the study of the reactions and components on the immune system. Different methods in immunochemistry are used in clinical tests.

• Lipid, protein and carbohydrate test:

  A lipid profile test is done to assess the risk of coronary heart disease of a person. It includes a group of tests carried out in order to assess the levels of different types of cholesterols (like triglycerides, LDL-Cholesterol and HDL-Cholesterol) in the blood stream. The lipid profile test includes:

  • Total cholesterol
  • High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)
    often called good cholesterol
  • Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)
    often called bad cholesterol
  • Triglycerides
  • Very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C)
  • Non-HDL-C

Toxicology:

It is the science of poisons. The opposing effects of chemicals on living organisms, is studied under this branch of biochemistry.

Drug Testing:

A drug test is a technical analysis of any biological specimen like urine, blood, hair, sweat, or saliva - to determine the presence or absence of specified drugs or their metabolites.