Instrumentation in the Cytogenetics Laboratory

Abstract

All laboratory procedures were essentially manual at one time. Primitive centrifuges were hand operated, and the earliest microscopes (examples of “new technology” in their own time) utilized operator-positioned mirrors to gather sunlight or candlelight before the discovery of electricity and the invention of the electric light bulb. Today, however, the typical clinical laboratory is dominated by technology, computers, and automated instrumentation. These have improved laboratory practice in three basic ways:

• Automation of tasks, which can free up technologist time, thereby improving efficiency and reducing costs

• An increase in the speed, accuracy, and reproducibility at which tasks can be performed

• Performance of tasks that cannot be accomplished manually