Recent advances in on-site mass spectrometry analysis for clinical applications

In recent years, mass spectrometry (MS) is increasingly attracting interests for clinical applications, which also calls for technical innovations to make a transfer of MS from conventional analytical labo-ratories to clinics. The system design and analysis procedure should be friendly for novice users and appliable for on-site clinical diagnosis. In addition, the analysis result should be auto-interpreted and reported in formats much simpler than mass spectra. This motivates new ideas for developments in all the aspects of MS. In this review, we report recent advances of direct sampling ionization and miniature MS system, which have been developed targeting clinical and even point-of-care analysis. We also discuss the trend of the development and provide perspective on the technical challenges raised by diseases such as coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Mass spectrometry is gaining increasing attention in clinical applications, requiring technical innovations to transfer it from conventional laboratories to clinical settings. This review highlights recent advances in direct sampling ionization and miniature MS systems, discusses the future development trends, and the technical challenges raised by diseases.