General Laboratory Medicine

At each of the Monasterio’s hospital facilities, there is an analysis laboratory, used for the care and research activities.

The main aim is to provide diagnostic, prognostic and monitoring aid to inpatients or outpatients attending Monasterio, using methods with the highest possible sensitivity and specificity, both analytical and clinical.

The age of the patients served covers the entire natural history of heart disease, starting with the care of infants with congenital heart defects.

In particular, at the San Cataldo Hospital, the laboratory provides services for outpatients, as well as patients admitted to hospital.

The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment.

In addition to routine procedures in clinical chemistry, haematology and haemostasis, the laboratory is able to use methods for measuring cardiovascular biomarkers, which are often original, and in any case always evaluated from the point of view of analytical and clinical characteristics in situ, and are the subject of numerous publications in specialised national and international journals.

In particular, our laboratory specialises in the measurement of biomarkers of cardiac function, i.e. cardiac natriuretic hormones, BNP, NT-proBNP, and specific cardiac damage markers, i.e. troponins I and T, measured with methods of higher analytical sensitivity, in accordance with the latest international guidelines.

The analysis laboratory at the Ospedale del Cuore carries out clinical chemistry, immunometry, haematology and coagulation activities, and is active as a support to the hospital’s healthcare activities, with a particular focus on the paediatric area and the area of intensive and emergency care: in this regard, the section dedicated to monitoring patients’ anti-platelet therapies with state-of-the-art instrumentation is unique.

The laboratory’s technicians and biologists also support the numerous clinical research protocols that take place within the Ospedale del Cuore.

There is also a molecular cardiology laboratory, which has been involved for years in researching the hereditary causes of cardiomyopathy (hypertrophic, dilated, arrhythmogenic, restrictive) and arrhythmic cardiomyopathy (Brugada syndrome, long QT syndrome, polymorphic ventricular tachycardia): recently, the laboratory was equipped with an instrument for Next Generation Sequencing NGS, an innovative technology that makes it possible to analyse hundreds of genes and/or the entire exome.

Indeed, the identification of the genetic cause of a cardiomyopathy allows the clinician to identify the patients at greatest risk, and thus develop a customised clinical/instrumental pathway.

Staff Pisa