Washington, DC, October 4, 2010   The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) announces a one-day conference, Practical Applications of Mass Spectrometry in the Clinical Laboratory, to be held November 15, 2010, at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in Baltimore, MD.

Although mass spectrometry has been used in the clinical lab for decades, the focus has mainly been on the screening of newborns for metabolic disorders.  As a result, clinical laboratory staff and pathologists have had only limited access to this important method.  However, mass spectrometry is becoming increasingly accepted for routine assays in the clinical laboratory, including vitamin D, drug testing confirmation, immunosuppressants, testosterone, and other tests, which has created excitement as well as some degree of apprehension within the clinical laboratory community.

AACC has created this program to explain some of the issues that have arisen as mass spectrometry evolves into a routine laboratory application.  The conference faculty will address the expanding use of mass spectrometry in the clinical laboratory: its advantages and disadvantages; the basics of mass spectrometry method evaluation; and laboratory considerations in mass spectrometry applications for TDM, toxicology, vitamin D, thyroid, catecholamine, and steroid analyses.

AACC invites interested journalists to register for this conference.  For a complimentary registration, complete and submit a Press Registration Form.  For more information about the conference or AACC, contact Peter Patterson on either of the above phone numbers or at ppatterson@aacc.org.

This event is made possible, in part, through a generous educational grant from Thermo Fisher Scientific.