Clinical Chemistry

Andrea McLain, MS, MT (ASCP)

Fall Semester 2024 | 4 Credit Hours

Course Description

This course will cover concepts and principles of analytic methods commonly used in the clinical laboratory. Emphasis will be on quantitative analysis of blood and body fluids utilizing spectrophotometry, electrophoresis, chromatography, enzymatic assays, and immunoassays. Students will be expected to correlate laboratory test results with normal physiology and biochemistry and with disease states. Topics will include metabolic and endocrine systems, and acquired and inherited diseases, therapeutic drug monitoring, toxicology and urinalysis.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the lecture portion of this course, successful students will be able to:

Discuss the basics of lab instrumentation and how they relate to the measurement of serum and / or body fluids;
Outline the normal process of digestion, anabolism, catabolism or carbohydrates, proteins and lipids within the body;
Describe lipid metabolism, analysis and disease processes associated with changes in lipid levels;
Describe liver function and the laboratory methods used to assess function;
Demonstrate an understanding of the mechanisms the body uses to regulate water and pH homeostasis;
Recognize genetic disorders that lead to altered amino acid metabolism;
Summarize enzyme analysis and function with methodology and clinical application in disease processes;
Relate specimen collection and handling, quality controls, reference ranges and sources of analytic errors for each analyte discussed in the course;
Apply Beer’s Law to the principle of spectrophotometry;
List the reasons that therapeutic drugs are monitored and state the current drugs most often monitored and the procedure most often used.

At the conclusion of the lab portion of this course, successful students will be able to:

Demonstrate proper specimen collection and handling techniques;
Perform acceptable quality control measures;
State sources of error and methods to minimize or eliminate these errors;
Perform calculations needed for laboratory analysis;
Apply the characteristic of proteins to specific analysis techniques;
Correlate changes in protein levels to disease processes;
Perform routine preventative maintenance and troubleshooting procedures on the instruments available.

(CLO = Course Learning Outcome)

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