Veterinary Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Diagnosis

TYPES OF CLINICAL LABORATORY

• Basic clinical laboratory
• Complete clinical laboratory

Basic clinical laboratory 

• This is an adjunct to any hospital for routine screening of specimens collected by the clinician. Examination of faecal samples, urine, skin scrapings, nasal washing and screening of wet films are done usually as a routine in all laboratories.

Complete clinical laboratory

• It is a full-fledged laboratory having the following sections.
  • Clinical pathology section: Deals with examination of body fluids  (blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, ascitic fluid etc) and also report on biopsy specimens.
  • Clinical microbiology section: Deals with entire range of immunological, cultural and antibiotic sensitivity tests.
  • Clinical parasitology section: Deals with identification of the parasites, parasitic eggs/oocysts of clinical importance (Both ecto and endoparasites).
  • Clinical Biochemistry section:  Deals with various biochemical tests like blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine etc. Alterations in biochemical parameters in disease condition are called “Biochemical lesions” and they form the basis of diagnosis of many important ailments. (Examples – Van den Bergh test in jaundice, blood sugar in diabetes mellitus, Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in myocardial infarction, BUN and creatinine in kidney disorders, Creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) in muscle damage, Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in liver dysfunction).
• Immunohaematology or blood group studies is gaining importance in veterinary field.