Laboratory medicine is conventionally defined as a branch of medicine encompassing the analysis of blood, urine and many other body fluids. The leading fields of laboratory medicine thereby encompass many analytical techniques such as clinical chemistry, immunochemistry, hematology, hemostasis, separation techniques, as wells as molecular biology. Although it cannot be definitely established when and where the real history of laboratory medicine began, anecdotal evidence suggests that the practice of pouring urine on the ground and observing to see whether it attracted insects for diagnosing boils was commonplace in Greece, in the 400 BC. In the following centuries the analysis of body fluids, especially urine and blood, became widespread, but it was only at the down of the 20th century that laboratory medicine acquired the dignity of a “standalone” science, leading the way to outstanding improvements of managed care (1). Therefore, laboratory medicine is now considered an essential part of the clinical decision making, wherein results of in vitro diagnostic testing provide a substantial contribution for the screening, diagnosis, prognostication and therapeutic monitoring of the vast majority of human disorders (2).
