A medical laboratory or clinical laboratory is a laboratory where tests are done on biological specimens in order to get information about the health of a patient.
The laboratory is often divided into a number of disciplines:
Microbiology receive swabs, urine, blood, sputum, medical equipment, as well as possible infected tissue. They culture this to check for any pathogenic microbes.
Hematology receive whole blood and citrated plasma. They do full blood counts and coagulation investigations.
Biochemistry usually receives serum. They test serum for different components.
Serology receive a serum samples to look for evidence of diseases such as hepatitis or HIV.
Histology process solid tissue removed from the body to make slides and examine cellular detail.
Cytology examine smears of cells (such as from the cervix) for evidence of cancer and other conditions.
Cytogenetics involves using blood and other cells to get a karyotype. This can be helpful in prenatal diagnosis (e.g. Down's syndrome) as well as in cancer (some cancers have abnormal chromosomes).
Virology and DNA analysis are also done in large medical laboratories.
Laboratory Informatics:
Laboratories today are held together by a system of software programs and computers exchanging data about patients, test requests and test results, known
as Laboratory information system.
This system enables hospitals and labs to send the correct test requests for each sample and keep track of individual patient or sample history, and help to guarantee
a better quality of results as well as publishing the results for doctors to check and patients to read.
