Toxicology

Toxicology at the NNUH is a section of the department of Clinical Biochemistry.

The majority of the work in this section concerns the detection of Class A drugs in urine samples; a number of analytical techniques are used for this purpose such as, gas chromatography and Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique (EMIT).

Toxicology also performs a number of speciality tests, such as the measurement of urinary catecholamine output and serotonin metabolite concentration by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for the detection and monitoring of phaeochromocytoma and serotonin-secreting carcinoid tumour, respectively.

The section is currently undergoing a process of updating its equipment and it is hoped that ‘state of the art’ HPLC: tandem mass spectrometry analysers will soon be installed to increase and improve the repertoire of assays available in the area.