Is clinical mass spectrometry the future of hormone testing?
The accuracy of quantitative hormone testing has been concerned by clinical and laboratory professionals.Most of the small molecule hormones in human body have the characteristics of low concentration and similar structure,and need to be detected by high sensitivity and high specificity detection technology to achieve accurate quantification.In the past 20 years,liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS)has gradually moved from scientific research to clinical application because of its unique sensitivity and specificity,which is considered to be a powerful supplement to traditional immunological methods,and has continuously achieved important fruits in clinical disease diagnosis and treatment.In order to further explore the application value of mass spectrometry technology in the quantitative detection of hormones,the Chinese Journal of Laboratory Medicine invited experts from the fields of clinical endocrinology and laboratory medicine to summarize their experience and opinions on the performance characteristics,challenges and future development direction of mass spectrometry technology in clinical hormone testing.Experts agreed that the advantages of mass spectrometry technology in hormone testing have been very clear,could effectively solve some clinical challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of endocrine diseases,but still faces a series of challenges such as insufficient talent reserve,low sample throughput,high operating costs and lack of standardized management.