title: [Requests for chemical analysis: growth without end?].
abstract: The number of analyses dealt within laboratory medicine increased from 1970 until the middle of the 80s by about 15% per annum in the German Federal Republic. The number of analyses in clinical chemistry, haematology, blood banking and haemostaseology have now reached a plateau. Because these analyses account for 85% of laboratory testing in big hospitals, the problems of rapid growth do not exist any longer. The single most important concern today is the spiralling cast of the remaining 15% of analyses, in the fields of serology, tumour diagnosis and monitoring, endocrinology, drug monitoring and microbiology. These investigations, which are rapidly increasing at the rate of about 15% annually, are mainly analyzed by means of the immunoassay technique. Immunoassays are very cost-intensive and, thus, current trends in laboratory medicine are characterized by an overproportional increase in costs with no foreseeable diminution in escalation.
authors.affiliation: Zentrallabor Krankenhaus Nordwest, Frankfurt/Main.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D002624:Chemistry, Clinical / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000639:trends; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans
vernacular_title: Analysenanforderung: Wachstum ohne Ende?