Trace Elements Laboratory at King's College Hospital

Laboratory overview

Our Trace Elements laboratory at Kings’ College Hospital provides specialist assay and interpretation service for a range of essential, non-essential and toxic elements in serum/plasma, whole blood, urine and tissues. Since introducing state-of-the-art Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS), our test repertoire has greatly expanded.

Key features:

• The laboratory is one of only 7 Supra-Regional Assay Service (SAS) designated Trace Element laboratories in the UK (http://www.sas-centre.org/centres/trace-elements/london-kings). 
• The reliability of the data produced is monitored by regular analysis of a range of commercially available and in-house quality control samples. 
• We actively participate in various external quality assessment schemes including United Kingdom National External Quality Scheme (UK NEQAS) and Ensuring the Quality of Iodine Procedures (EQUIP) scheme.
• The laboratory is also approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the occupational monitoring of lead and cadmium. 
• Our Biochemistry department  has a major interest in metal metabolism, and in particular iron and copper metabolism. 
• We have close links with the Institute of Liver Studies, and have ongoing collaborative studies on metal metabolism in patients with genetic disorders such as haemochromatosis and Wilson disease.