The most important objectives frequently found in analytical and bioanalytical chemistry involve advancement of analytical techniques and its application to relevant medical/clinical problems. Keeping in view to these aspects, the present chapter is primarily focused on the development of advanced analytical techniques applied in the medical field. For example, N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) enzyme is a specific biomarker of acute kidney injury. A biomarker is an entity that is purposely measured and estimated as an indicator of normal biological process, pathogenic process, or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention. Hence, successive measurements of urinary NAG may enhance its clinical use as an indicator of ongoing tubular injury. Hence, in order to obtain information for selective monitoring of biomarker, the development of a practical and valid analytical method is important. Experimentation is driven by the need to know more about the medical effects and safety features of the biologically active analyte. It is therefore more important to evaluate the information that is already available for that particular analyte and to quantify the level of uncertainty for the proposed technique.

Selectivity of an analytical method defines the measurement of a particular analyte from sample solution to a certain degree, in the presence of other analytes, without any interference. However, sensitivity of a method describes the ability to recognize two different concentrations. Medical and clinical analyses are undergoing the greatest extension of instrumental methods. Interest in identifying biologically active compounds is growing rapidly and providing new challenges for the analytical chemists. These challenges have been resolved by the introduction of bio-analytical technique as a modern approach to disease diagnosis and therapy. A bio-analytical method is a combination of different procedures which are (i) collection, (ii) processing, (iii) storage, and (iv) analysis of a biological sample (blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), serum, plasma, or urine, tissue, and skin). This method is also useful for quantitative determination of drugs and metabolites in biological samples. Hence, to find out the appropriate technologies involved in a bio-analytical method for the purpose of quantification of an analyte, the method validation is important. This procedure is termed as bio-analytical method validation (BMV). Few techniques commonly applied in bioanalytical studies include hyphenated (combination of two techniques) techniques like liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS), and advanced automated chromatographic techniques, for example, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) During the past decades, the analytes that have been targeted in bio-analytical studies include amino acid, peptides, proteins, serum enzyme, tumor and cancer genes, carbohydrates, vitamins, catecholamines, cardiac risk factors, etc. [4]. With the recurrent analysis of biomolecules, numerous analytical techniques and instrumentation have been evolved and applied in the field of medical sciences which are as follows: Sensors, Electrophoresis, Chromatography, Mass spectrometry, Optical techniques (microscopy),Radio- and immunochemical techniques,Hyphenated techniques. Point-of-care instrumentation.

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Hanna Marin,

Managing Editor,

Journal of Analytical and Bio-analytical Techniques

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