Ultramicro Methods for Clinical Laboratories.

Abstract

The authors have produced a handy little manual for use in a hospital ultramicrochemistry laboratory. They emphasize the usefulness of such a laboratory, the necessity for its separation from the "frenzied activity of the routine hospital chemistry department," and the requirement for special training and techniques. The first three chapters, twenty pages, include a section in which the special equipment required is described and, in some cases, pictured. The equipment considered necessary to operate the basic hospital microchemistry laboratory is listed and described. Also included are notes on the technique of using ultramicro pipettes, obtaining capillary blood, and separating the serum for analysis. The next eighteen chapters, one hundred three pages, describe the selected procedures for a number of tests, most of which are performed upon 10- to 30-microliter specimens of serum and utilize micromodifications of rather well-known methods. Sodium and potassium are determined by flame photometry, with use of