FACULTY

William H. Porter, PhD Professor

Certification:
American Board of Clinical Chemistry (Clinical Chemistry) (Toxicological Chemistry)

The Clinical Toxicology and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Laboratories, accredited by the College of American Pathologist (CAP) and CLIA certified, perform a variety of state-of-the art qualitative and quantitative drug analyses in support of patient care, 24 hours/day, seven days/week.

For qualitative drug testing in urine, either a focused drugs of abuse (DAU) screen or a more comprehensive broad spectrum drug screen (UDS) are available at all hours. These drug screens are performed by a combination of techniques including automated immunoassays, thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Drugs of abuse initially positive by screening immunoassay or other drugs detected by thin-layer chromatography are automatically confirmed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.

Quantitative assays for a select group of drugs in blood, plasma or saliva are used to monitor their appropriate therapeutic levels .These assays are performed by automated immunoassays or in the case of immunosuppressant drugs (tacrolimus, sirolimus, cyclosporine) by liquid chromatography/ tandem mass spectrometry. Special testing is available for some anticonvulsant drugs (phenytoin, carbamazepine, phenobarbital) in saliva, especially valuable for pediatric patients.

Quantitative assays are also available at all hours for alcohols (ethanol, methanol, isopropanol) by gas chromatography and for ethylene glycol and its toxic metabolite, glycolic acid, by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.