During the past few years in clinical biochemistry there has been a considerable increase in clinical demand for investigations. When the volume of work increased, there arose a need for work simplification. Mono-step methods were introduced to replaced multistep cumbersome methods. The efficiency of mono-step methods was further increased by the introduction of automatic dispensers and diluters. For the common tests like blood glucose and blood urea etc; however most large laboratories found this approach still inadequate to deal with work load and instruments designed to handle the whole analytical process in a mechanized fashion.This procedure is called automation, it is a self regulating process, where the specimen is accurately pipetted by a mechanical probe and mixed with a particular volume of the reagent and the results are displayed in digital forms and also printed by a printer. There is a element of feedback which detects any tendency to malfunction. The automated instruments not only save the labor and time but also allow reliable quality control, reduce subjective errors and work economically by using small quantities of samples and reagents. First successful automated system was introduced by L.T.Skeggs. In 1957. Technicon marketed it as single channel continuous flow analyzer. In Japan hematology and chemistry instruments coexist side by side in a chematology environment. These are clustered compactly around a belt line in an open laboratory space.
In a dichroic mirror, instead alternating layers of optical coatings with different refractive indexes are built up upon a glass substrate. The interfaces between the layers of different refractive index produce phased reflections, selectively reinforcing certain wavelengths of light and interfering with other wavelengths. The layers are usually deposited in a vacuum. Because unwanted wavelengths are reflected rather than absorbed, dichroic filters do not absorb this unwanted energy during operation and so do not become nearly as hot as the equivalent conventional filter (which attempts to absorb all energy except for that in the passband). Use of Dichoric mirrors makes optical system more precise and reliable as these special mirrors split wavelengths more accurately and precisely. Presently Accurex is having this optical system in LW C100plus analyzer. Random Access Clincal chemistry auto analyzers are in great demand as laboratories going through consolidation phase. Small labs are undergoing the process of Merging and Acquisitions. Big players are competing to capture the market dominance. As it is seen in US, India will have only few players in Pathology with large network and quality standards.
