Mass spectrometry in the clinical laboratory

Mass spectrometry (MS) is widely used for the clinical study of significant biomolecules. A review of the clinical applications of MS is given. The applications are arranged in three basic groups: small metabolites such as organic acids, amino acids, fatty acids, steroids and their conjugates, peptides, proteins, and glycoproteins, and oligonucleotides derived from biopolymers (DNA, RNA). A brief discussion of the quantitative aspects of MS, quality assurance, and integration of MS in the clinical laboratory is also presented.