Biochemical tests

Clinical biochemistry or chemical pathology is the study of chemical and biochemical mechanisms of the body in relation to disease, mostly through the analysis of body fluids such as blood or urine. Many diseases show significant changes in the chemical composition of body fluids such as the raised blood enzymes due to their release from heart muscles after a heart attack; or a raised blood sugar in diabetes mellitus due to lack of insulin. Biochemical tests are designed to detect these changes qualitatively or quantitatively compared to results from healthy people. Clinical biochemistry use a broad range of analytical techniques for example, molecular diagnostics, measurement of enzyme activities, spectrophotometry, electrophoresis, the separation of molecules based on physical characteristics and immunoassays.