Laboratory

C H A P T E R

2 Concise Book of Medical Laboratory Technology: Methods and Interpretations

Clinical laboratory investigations nowadays are being

utilized as future predictors. On getting warning signals,

one can take necessary corrective measures (lifestyle and/

or dietary) and can prevent diseases from striking or at

least deferring or postponing their arrival.

HELP! AND YOU DID AND YOU ALWAYS WILL. When

a clinician is lost, you shall show him the way in the best

possible way, you lead him to a diagnosis and let him

do his job thereafter. He may come back to you later to

determine that his efforts have been fruitful.

The following pages within the covers of this book will show

you the right path on how to be an excellent laboratorian.

Do your best in serving mankind. As you yourself may be

a patient tomorrow. This book shall also serve you well by

providing interpretation of the results obtained by you.

This book shall be true to its title “Concise Book of Medical

Laboratory Technology: Methods and Interpretations”.

While physiology is the study of essentially normal

structures and functions of a body, pathology deals with

the study of a diseased organ or system of the body, its abnormal functions, their mode of origin, their progress to

recovery or otherwise. All these studies come under the

ambit of a clinical pathology laboratory. A clinical laboratory has further sub-branches such as: hematology, biochemistry, seroimmunology, microbiology, cytogenetics,

histopathology, cytopathology, blood banking and last but

not least—clinical microscopy.

A clinical laboratory can be manned by a qualified

doctor specializing in clinical pathology, biochemistry,

immunology, blood banking, histopathology, cytopathology,

hematology, microbiology or cytogenetics. The pathologist

is usually assisted by laboratory technicians or technologists

(they are also qualified for the job) and lastly the cleaning

and documentation staff. Only by collective efforts of

the individuals mentioned above, a proper report can be

generated. Be grateful to the clinician for having faith in you

and give back nothing except an accurate and correct timely

report. A delayed report may at times be too late. The patient

may have lost his life by then. A timely correct report is the

essence of running a good laboratory.

The cycle of health-disease with all intermediaries is

given in Figure 1.1. Just as there are primary, secondary

and tertiary health centers, there are also the primary,

secondary and tertiary laboratories too. In India, there are

no specific guidelines as to what or how much they can

do and overlapping can occur. A superior laboratory may

perform all functions of an inferior laboratory too.

Primary Laboratory

In rural setups, for instance, a primary laboratory may

provide only the basic investigations. These investigations

are simple to perform and do not involve expensive

machinery usage. Such laboratories are also attached to

FIG. 1.1: Health-disease-health cycle

Laboratory 3