MCU HOSPITAL – FILEMON D.

TANCHOCO FOUNDATION
CLINICAL INTERNSHIP 2022 E-PORTFOLIO

NAME: _________________________________________________________

SECTION: ______________________________________________________
DATE & TITLE: __________________________________________________

February 22 Clinical Chemistry First Session

On February 22, 2022, we’ve had our discussion on Clinical Chemistry with our hospital, Manila Central
University. The speaker in the said event is Ms. Maxine Alinell. Our discussion started with discussing the
laboratory safety practices such as prohibition of drinking, eating and smoking in the laboratory, practicing the
universal precaution when it comes to handling blood and body fluids, wearing PPE, decontaminating work area
and usage of laboratory equipment only for laboratory procedure, used of biosafety cabinet for aerosol and
observing proper waste disposal.
After discussing the practices observed in the laboratory, we proceeded with discussing the pre analytical
phase. There are changes and adjustments in blood extractions in MCU due to COVID-19, they have provide
barriers to lessen the contact between the phlebotomist and patient. They also show how the new extraction area
looks like, they have installed acrylic barrier. Next in pre-analytical is specimen handling and interferences.
Specimen handling includes labeling, receiving, clotting of specimen and centrifugation. While in interferences
includes hemolysis, lipemia and icterus. For the analytical we have quality control which ensures the accuracy and
precision of the results in the laboratory. It is done to check both medical technologist (control interpretation) and
machine. Possible source of error can be the following; mixing, bubbles, control open vial stability, control expiry,
reagent expiry, reagent volume and calibration. For the laboratory testing interferences, we have sample handling,
sample integrity and patient’s history. For additional information, they told us that we do calibration once a month
but control running is done everyday.
The next topic that was discussed was the guidelines in Clinical Chemistry testing. The specimen of choice
is 2mL whole blood in red or yellow top which yields 1 mL of serum. As per HgbA1c, at least 2 mL of whole blood
in EDTA is needed. The specimen should be receive within 24 hours and results must be out within 4 hours.
When it comes to fasting, for the hospital, the ideal number of hours is 8 to 10 hours for FBS and 10 to 14 hours
for lipid profile. Specimens must be centrifuge at 3500 rpm for 10 minutes. The specimens are restored for 7 days
in refrigerator before it can be disposed. For that, they also discussed the instruments that they using in the
Clinical Chemistry section of MCU. One of those is COBAS Integra 400 which uses absorbance photometry
turbidity. It can accommodate allot of assays such as uric acid, cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose (FBS, OGTT,
OGCT, RBS, PPBS, PGBS), creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, magnesium, phosphorus, lactate dehydrogenase
and etc.. They also provided video of control running and sample running of COBAS Integra 400. Next instrument
that was described was Vitros 4600 which is their new and main machine in Clinical Chemistry section. It uses the
principle of dry chemical slide. They also provided a video of its control and sample running, followed by how they
receive and log the test request, centrifugation and specimen running. Another instrument discussed is ABX
Pentra C400 which uses absorbance photometry turbidimetry. The difference of this instrument is it can run a test
for G6PD. For testing HgbA1c, the hospital utilizes MINICAP SEBIA HgbA1c that uses the principle of
electrophoresis. Last automated machine to be discussed is ISE 5000 which uses direct ion-selective electrode
Compared to other board exam subjects, I find Clinical Chemistry more interesting than the others, and
during the said session, I have learned to appreciate it more. I am very excited to use those instruments or
machined that was mentioned in the session. I am hoping to learn more during our second session.
MCU HOSPITAL – FILEMON D. TANCHOCO FOUNDATION
CLINICAL INTERNSHIP 2022 E-PORTFOLIO