Clinical Chemistry & Point-Of-Care Testing

The UC Irvine Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, which also includes Special Chemistry, Toxicology and Point-of-Care (POC) Testing subdivisions, performs a comprehensive range of routine and specialized testing for diagnostic, prognostic and disease monitoring purposes on blood, urine and other fluids.

Trainees will be exposed to the following testing types:

• Routine chemistry testing
• Specialized disease/organ system testing
• Specialized tumor marker and hormone testing
• Lipoprotein, Immunoglobulin and IgG subclass testing
• Serum and urine protein electrophoresis and immunofixation
• Autoimmune and allergen testing
• Toxicology and trace metal analysis
• Blood gases
• Urinalysis

Clinical Chemistry Laboratory

The Clinical Chemistry Laboratory performs a comprehensive selection of routine chemistry tests, as well as diverse tests for serology, toxicology, therapeutic drug monitoring, endocrine/hormone analysis, tumor markers and others. All common tests are performed in the UC Irvine Health Douglas Hospital Laboratory. Stat and high-throughput testing are performed on a total laboratory automation system.

Special Chemistry

The Special Chemistry subdivision performs specialized biomarker testing, including immunoglobulin levels, serum-free light chains, autoantibodies and a large menu of allergens. In addition, UC Irvine’s special chemistry experts perform serum and urine protein electrophoresis and immunofixation, for which interpretive reports and consultative services are provided. The lab also offers the Hydrashift Daratumumab assay to definitively distinguish Daratumumab from disease-related M proteins in serum samples.

Toxicology

The Toxicology subdivision handles tests of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), urine drug screening and confirmation. In addition, the toxicology lab performs lead and other metal analysis. The tests of toxicology and metal analysis are performed with immunoassay instruments: LC-MS, GC-MS and ICP-MS.

The POC Testing

The POC Testing subdivision oversees both inpatient and outpatient POC testing needs across the entire UC Irvine Health system. This subdivision handles any requests for new or additional POC tests, sites and instruments at UC Irvine Health.

Educational opportunities for the Clinical Chemistry & Point-Of-Care Testing subspecialty include medical student teaching, residency training and the clinical laboratory scientist program.