The department provides a wide range of biochemical investigations for the diagnosis of disease, monitoring the progress of disease and for screening for disease for the acute trust, Queen Mary's Hospital and for primary care. Investigations performed by the laboratory come under two categories:
- Automated Section
This section deals with the bulk of the tests performed by the chemical pathology department. Tests such as serum renal, liver and bone profiles, cholesterol etc are carried out in a large open area of the laboratory on two main Beckman Coulter AU 5811 analysers. Also within this area are two high throughput Beckman Coulter DxI 800 Immunoassay analysers that perform assays including thyroid function, infertility investigations, tumour markers, haematinics and troponin. - Miscellaneous Section
This section is where the remainder of the biochemistry's work is completed and comprises of a broad variety of techniques and assays, both manual and automated. The range of tests include protein and urine electrophoresis, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as well as Xanthochromia investigation and sweat analysis.