Mass Spectrometry: Clinical and Biomedical Applications

- __ ¿ ___ __ ¿ - __ e _e __ M-A-S-S S-P-£-C-T-R-O-M-£-T-R-Y in Morse code This volume collects descriptions of selected recent developments in state-of­ the-art mass spectrometric methods and reflects the broad-based approaches that mass spectroscopists apply to a variety of important clinical and bio­ medical problems. One chapter reviews current mass-spectrometric instrumen­ tation and techniques, and other chapters describe the use of mass-spectro­ metric methods for the analysis of diacylglycerylphospholipids; modifications to DNA molecules; the characterization of variant hemoglobins; and charac­ terization of urinary nucleosides. The final chapter describes the new technique of combined microdialysis/mass spectrometry. This volume represents the collected efforts of several highly productive researchers who have developed new methods and instrumentation and have applied them to current research problems, such as lipid storage diseases, cancer, hemoglobinopathies, and brain neurochemistry. The chapters in Vol­ umes 1 and 2 define the outlines of clinical and biomedical mass spectrometry and attest to the flexibility and creativity of mass spectroscopists and their interaction with biologic and clinical scientists. The authors in this volume are to be congratulated for their writing efforts, their scientific vigor and rigor, their intellectual contributions, and the ex­ perimental details that are described in these chapters. I thank each author for collaborating with me on the production of this volume, and I hope these chapters will help the practitioners of, and the newcomers to, the field of mass spectrometry.