Overview
Chemical pathology is the study of chemical and biochemical mechanisms of the body in relation to disease, mostly through the analysis of body fluids such as blood or urine. In many diseases there are significant changes in the chemical composition of body fluids such as the raised blood enzymes due to their release from heart muscles after a heart attack, or a raised blood sugar in diabetes mellitus due to lack of insulin.
Tests are designed to detect these changes qualitatively or quantitatively compared to results from healthy people.
Chemical pathology includes:
- General or routine chemistry - commonly ordered blood chemistries, e.g. electrolytes, blood gases, lipids, liver and kidney function tests
- Special chemistry - elaborate techniques such as electrophoresis, and manual testing methods
- Clinical endocrinology - the study of hormones, and diagnosis of endocrine disorders
- Toxicology - the study of drugs of abuse and other chemicals
- Therapeutic drug monitoring - measurement of therapeutic medications blood levels to optimize dosage
- Urinalysis - chemical analysis of urine for a wide array of diseases, along with other fluids such as CSF and effusions
- Fecal analysis - mostly for detection of gastrointestinal disorders
Patient health care
Some of the many areas where the Chemical Pathology Laboratory becomes involved in patient health care include:
- Diseases:
- Heart attacks
- Kidney failure
- Viral and bacterial infection
- Infertility
- Diabetics
- High cholesterol
- Thyroid problems
- Screening services:
- Phenylketonuria
- Cystic fibrosis in newborn babies
- Genetic screening
- Screening for illegal drug use
- Measuring drug levels to make sure people are on the best dose
Required skills
Medical laboratory scientists working in chemical pathology must develop complex practical and interpretive skills, as the work ranges from manual techniques requiring hands on practical skills; through to operation and management of highly automated testing systems capable of producing thousands of results an hour. Given the scope of chemical pathology and the number of analyses being performed, all assays and equipment must closely monitored and quality-controlled to maintain the integrity of the results produced.
Interpretation and reporting of laboratory results requires in-depth knowledge of human pathology and the effect of disease processes on the chemicals being measured.
This knowledge must be integrated with the understanding and limitations of the analytical techniques being used to achieve these results, to ensure that the results are produced are accurate and precise to facilitate the correct treatment for patients.
Chemical pathology is the study of chemical and biochemical mechanisms of the body in relation to disease.
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Regulations on this page are taken from the 2026 Calendar and supplementary material.
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