Impact of automation on mass spectrometry.
Mass spectrometry coupled to liquid chromatography (LC-MS and LC-MS/MS) is an analytical technique that has rapidly grown in popularity in clinical practice. In contrast to traditional technology, mass spectrometry is superior in many respects including resolution, specificity, multiplex capability and has the ability to measure analytes in various matrices. Despite these advantages, LC-MS/MS remains high cost, labor intensive and has limited throughput. This specialized technology requires highly trained personnel and therefore has largely been limited to large institutions, academic organizations and reference laboratories. Advances in automation will be paramount to break through this bottleneck and increase its appeal for routine use. This article reviews these challenges, shares perspectives on essential features for LC-MS/MS total automation and proposes a step-wise and incremental approach to achieve total automation through reducing human intervention, increasing throughput and eventually integrating the LC-MS/MS system into the automated clinical laboratory operations.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, United States. Electronic address: victoria_zhang@urmc.rochester.edu.
Yan Victoria
YV
Zhang
Department of Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States; ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, United States.
Alan
A
Rockwood
D053000:Analytic Sample Preparation Methods; D001331:Automation; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012015:Reference Standards
Automation; Clinical practices; High throughput; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Routine clinical laboratories