Recent Advances in the Clinical Application of Mass Spectrometry

Since the latter half of the 20th century mass spectrometry (MS) applications, associated with gas chromatography (GC) separation (i.e. GC-MS), have been the “gold standard” in specialised clinical laboratories for the quantitation of drugs, organic acids and steroids [1]. This status quo remained unchallenged until just over a decade ago when liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were introduced into routine clinical chemistry testing. This expansion and integration for many has been disruptive, but overall by and large, clinical chemistry laboratories are embracing MS for many analytes. This is exemplified by its increased presence in external quality assurance (EQA) programs [2,3,4,5]; Table 1 (see following page).