Clinical Chemistry

A branch of medical science that involves the analysis of chemical components of body fluids.

The development of scientific research in medicine and the emergence of organic & physiological chemistry.

Made possible by significant contributions from biology and natural philosophy.

A Greek physician considered as the “Father of Medicine” and author of the Hippocratic oath (as introduced in Module 1). He started the belief that diseases are caused by imbalances of humors in the body. This belief sparked an interest among early physicians to observe body fluids.

He introduced the anatomic approach of disease process and explained diseases in terms of localized pathologic anatomy, rather than as attributable to an imbalance of the humors diffused throughout the system.

He is considered to be the “Father of Modern Chemistry”. He recognized and named two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. He discovered the role of oxygen in the process of combustion and that respiration is a slow combustion process. He started the belief that chemical analysis is a refined type of dissection that sparked a renewal of interest in the examination of body fluids.

They believed that living organisms contain a “vital force” that was the very essence of life. They also believed that processes within living organisms were unique and could not be duplicated in the laboratory. To them, in vitro synthesis of “organic” compounds is impossible and denied that chemistry has a role in physiology.

Believed that animals are no more than “machines” and that life could be explained fully by chemical and physical principles and properties alone.

Believed that man is not unique. The believe that there is continuity between man and the animals as attested by Darwin’s publication “Origin of Species” which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology.

He was successful in isolating urea from urine samples. He also believed that chemical laboratories should be located near the wards, where chemical analysis of urine excretions of the sick could be carried out.

He was able to synthesize urea in vitro by evaporating an isomeric solution of ammonium cyanate proving that “organic” substances could be synthesized in vitro without any “vital force” in a living organism. This created a bridge between the “organic” and “inorganic” worlds. In doing so, he gave the first proof that vitalism is wrong.

He was able to synthesize organic compounds such as ethanol, formic acid, and benzene in vitro via chemical treatments of inorganic compounds.

He discovered that glycogen was formed by the liver which contradicted the vitalism belief that only plants can produce complex compounds.

He was the first to observe that urea and albumin concentration in plasma decreases as their concentration increases in the urine of the patient.

Credited as the first to make the true connection between chemistry and medical practice and was a vitalist. However, he advocated the benefits to be derived from the application of chemistry to physiology in the treatment of diseases. Also, he favored the study of physics and chemistry by medical students.

He stressed the practical diagnostic value of chemistry and urged medical school curriculum to use English as the medium of instruction.

“Chemical studies are relevant to clinical medicine.” “It is in the blood that we must look for many important modifications in connection with disease.”

Century when an average medical student or average practitioner barely had a nodding acquaintance with chemistry and could not use a microscope.

The Hospital recognized the powerful aid that the science of medicine “has received from the study of organic chemistry and knowledge and use of the microscope”, thus authorizing the purchase of a microscope at a cost not to exceed 50 US dollars.

The position of a “Chemist-Microscopist” was established.

He proposed that the American hospitals must employ clinical chemists to advance their ability to differentiate between the physiologic and the pathologic.

Scientists who determined reference intervals of chemicals/ analytes. They correlated variations/ abnormal values with pathologic conditions. They also elucidated metabolic pathways in health and disease.

He invented a volumetric gas-measuring apparatus for the determination of carbon dioxide concentration.

Developed a method for the production of a protein- free filtrate that can be used for determining blood sugar.