Clinical Analisys - Hormones and Tumour Marker unit
The Hormone and Tumour Marker Unit offers the various medical specialists a reliable tool allowing them to cover the different functional aspects of the diseases related to their respective clinical areas from an analytical point of view – largely endocrinology, oncology and prenatal diagnosis.
In the area of endocrinological disease, the Unit covers a wide range of serum, plasma, urine and saliva parameters as a matter of routine, making it possible to discover the proper operation of all endocrinological glands and, at the same time, through functional tests, the proper state of all hormone axes.
In the oncology area, our work is largely focused on determining tumour markers that allow clinical oncologists, together with other parameters, to diagnose, characterise and treat patients and to monitor their progress.
In the area of prenatal diagnosis, using biochemical markers together with scan markers, we can individually establish the risk of pregnancy affected by chromosome disorders in the first trimester and chromosome disorders and neural tube defects in the second trimester.
ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES
•
Gamma and beta RIA systems
• Elisa systems
• Automatic chemiluminescence analysers
• Liquid chromatography (HPLC)
FIELDS OF ACTION
The Unit analyses around 120 serum, plasma, saliva and urine parameters as a matter of routine. These can be classified into four groups:
HORMONES: This allows the exploration of the functioning of all endocrinological glands: hypophysis, thyroid, gonads, supra-renal, pancreas, placenta, etc., helping the clinician to establish a diagnosis.
TUMOUR MARKERS: Molecules that are of great assistance in evaluating the different aspects of tumour biology, allowing the clinical oncologist to characterise, treat and monitor the progress of the cancer. In the presence of a high level of a tumour marker, the existence of a false positive which could be due to associated benign disorders in the tissues where they are synthesised, catabolised and/or eliminated always needs to be ruled out.
VITAMINS: B6, B12 and derivatives of Vitamin D. These help to diagnose anaemia, osteomalacia, chronic kidney insufficiency and hyperparathyroidism.
BIOCHEMICAL SCREENING FOR CHROMOSOME DISORDERS AND NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS: Using certain substances of foetal, placental or foeto-placental origin, such as free BHCG, alpha-fetoprotein and PAPP-A (biochemical markers) whose concentrations in maternal serum are substantially altered in the presence of certain chromosome anomalies or neural tube defects. |
|
