“The fear of the Lord - that is wisdom, and to shun evil - is understanding”
-JOB 28:28-
Ready… Set… GO…
It’s the official start of class again! Another year of surprises, struggles, happiness and excitements to looked forward to. Leaving the past and creating new memories is to be expected, and this time, as 4th year BS Medical Technology students, a lot of old and new things are being anticipated, but one thing is for sure we should be more focused and goal-oriented this moment than we were before. If I wanted to become successful I know that I ought to start right now or else, forever hold my peace. So building my future hopes and dreams starts right at this very moment…
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Clinical Chemistry 3
One of the most important thing that a future medical technologist ought to know and fully understand are the different principles and tests to be performed relating to Clinical Chemistry. In the context of Clinical settings, Clinical Chemistry is one of the sections or areas in the laboratory that receives a bunch of test to be performed everyday, which only shows how significant this certain area is.
In the academe settings, it is said to be divided into 3 major parts so it can be fully accommodated and comprehend by the students because of its major importance in the laboratory, and these 3 parts are said to be: Clinical Chemistry 1 which talks about Blood Chemistry, Clinical Chemistry 2 which deals with Special Chemistry and the last one is Clinical Chemistry 3 which is known as the Endocrinology, Toxicology and Drug Testing.
So let's buckle up and start to explore them by knowing first the definition of the three most important terms needed in the study.
(Courtesy of: http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-8345458-cartoon-doctor-with-syringe.php)
As the testing in the laboratories continue to expand and significantly progress, a certain field called Clinical Endocrinology flourishes and progress as well . This field has considerably been very important in the field of Clinical Chemistry because of its complexity when it comes to quantifying small or diminutive amounts of polypeptides, steroids, and other compounds which regulate many of the biochemical processes in the body. Answers in relation to the questions about growth and development are now possible because of this study which is aided by the changes of hormone patterns.
Clinical Endocrinology speaks about the study of the endocrine system which has a regulatory functions of water balance, uterine contraction and milk release, growth, metabolism and tissue maturation, ion regulation, heart rate and blood pressure regulation, blood glucose control, immune system regulation and reproductive functions control. Through these different regulation functions of the endocrine system many processes in the body can be tested and monitored using the various tests available on Clinical Endocrinology field.
Disturbance on the function and processes of the endocrine system can result to different variety of disease such as Diabetes mellitus or Addison’s disease. More importantly through the hormonal changes happening to humans clinical laboratory scientists can easily identified diverse mental illnesses to an individual because nervous and endocrine systems are the two major systems responsible for the homeostatic regulation of the body.
Clinical Endocrinology speaks about the study of the endocrine system which has a regulatory functions of water balance, uterine contraction and milk release, growth, metabolism and tissue maturation, ion regulation, heart rate and blood pressure regulation, blood glucose control, immune system regulation and reproductive functions control. Through these different regulation functions of the endocrine system many processes in the body can be tested and monitored using the various tests available on Clinical Endocrinology field.
Disturbance on the function and processes of the endocrine system can result to different variety of disease such as Diabetes mellitus or Addison’s disease. More importantly through the hormonal changes happening to humans clinical laboratory scientists can easily identified diverse mental illnesses to an individual because nervous and endocrine systems are the two major systems responsible for the homeostatic regulation of the body.
What is Toxicology?
The food that we eat, the beverages that we drink, the medicines/drugs that we take even the beauty products that we buy have different constituents and additives that give harmful and adverse effect to humans who consumes it, this is where toxicology comes to the picture.
Toxicology is said to be the adverse or extreme effects of certain chemicals, almost found in all products, to living things. These chemicals give different adverse reactions from very low to very high range of toxicity which can lead to coma or even death if not treated readily, which is also an important part in the field of toxicology. In this field, toxicologists aim to find certain results and interpretations on up to what extent of toxicity a certain chemical or products can supply to an individual. Toxicology also helps people to determine whether the specific merchandise is poisonous or not or whether if it can still be of good used.
Toxic chemicals may be referred to as either toxins or toxicants. Toxins are those toxic chemicals produced by living systems such as plants or animals while toxicants are that remainder of toxic chemicals. On the other hand poisons are substances which when introduced to living organisms destroy life or injure health. In this study it is very much important to also know certain point and areas:
- Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion of toxic substances
- Dose – Response Relationship
- Toxicology of Therapeutic Drugs
- Toxicology of Specific Agents
- Toxicology of the Drugs of Abuse
- Exposure and Routes to toxins
For a certain poisons or toxins there are certain treatment and antidotes given to relieve or lowered the toxicity of certain chemicals like the chemical antidote, physiologic antidote and specific antidote. But remember not all poisonous or toxic chemicals have antidotes to alleviate their harmful effect. So it is always important for medical technologists to be familiar with all of these because it can greatly affect a lot of people.
What is Drug Testing?
Drugs are chemicals that have certain effects on living organisms whether good or bad effect. Many people used drugs to treat certain illness but some people used them even without in need for it and leads to abusing it and making them dependent to it. For this specific reasons many individuals abuse drugs up to the point that they cannot control themselves and do things they don’t even know and this is where certain problems in the society appears and for this reason drug testing comes into for rescue.
Drug testing is the technique of testing biological specimens like urine, sweat, blood and even saliva to monitor or test the presence of specific drug or metabolites. From the results that will be taken from the test, physicians will rationalized it and looked if the drug present is under prohibited drugs or not. And through this we can make abrupt solutions if there will be a need for it. There are some important information also needed to know by medical technologists and these are the:
- Length of time drugs are detected in urine
- Common type of drug test
- Types of testing
Drug testing is really important for our country to lessen the crimes in the Philippines.
