Laboratories Services at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, have been established with a view to provide wide range of Laboratory investigations, necessary for patient care. It consists of disciplines of Biochemistry, Clinical Pathology, Haematology, Immunology, Microbiology & Serology, Endocrinology, Nutrition and Metabolism, Infectious diseases, Histopathology, Cytopathology and Immuno-Histochemistry. All these disciplines provide qualitative and quantitative analysis of biological fluids such as blood, serum or plasma, tissue, urine, stool, CSF etc. for specific constituents to support Clinicians in the practice of medicine. The greatest emphasis has been given to ensure accuracy, precision reproducibility and speedy reporting. The laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art equipments. To operate these sophisticated gadgets the laboratories have a team of efficient, motivated, knowledgeable and qualified Doctors and technical staff who are constantly involved in producing World class results and upholding quality assurance. All the blood samples of Laboratory investigations are collected using vacutainer system of collection which avoid contamination, thus any gross error. The laboratories at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital provide round the clock services i.e. 24 hrs a day, 365 days in a year to its clients. The consultants are also available on Sundays/ Holidays .

Biochemistry Lab
The Biochemistry Department of Indraprastha Apollo Hospital is a third generation laboratory, backed by highly qualified and motivated team of Doctors and Technical staff. It is well equipped with latest state of art technology, to perform not only the routine biochemical test for patients care but also a wide variety of super specialized investigations, such as Tumor markers, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring including Cyclosporin, Immunoglobulins, Immunofixation Electrophoresis, Osmolality, Iron deficiency panel, Stone analysis, Diabetic profile and many more. To name a few sophisticated equipments, we have Hitachi-911 a fully automatic random access autoanalyzer capable of doing Sepectro- photometric and Immunoturbidimetric analysis of various analytes, Mini vida, an automatic analyzer with latest technology called ELFA, to analyser of tumor markers and hormones. Radiometer ABL-510-Blood Gas analyzer, AVL988/3 -an Electrolytes analyzer, Beckman's Appraise paragon Electrophoresis with Densitometer, Osmometer, Photometer-5010, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, J &J Dry chemistry analyzer and many more. Using these system, Biochemical analysis inclusive of homogenous immunoassays and ELFA tecnology are being done within a very short period of time, requiring minimum sample volume. Special emphasis is being given on daily quality checks i.e. Internal Quality control as well as External Quality control standards, by participating in two different International Quality controls Programmes run by Biorad Laboratories USA and Boehringer Mannheim, Germany respectively. The Quality control standards are maintained as per WHO recommendations. The reagents kits used for various analysis are FDA approved.

Clinical Pathology Lab
The laboratory is equipped with completely automated instruments, cell counters for carrying out routine haematological investigations such as haemoglobin, total and differential leucocyte counts, platelets count, red cell indices etc. accurately.

The laboratory carries out complete work up Acute and Chronic Leukemias including Cytochemistry and highly specialized Immunophenotyping with wide range of immunomarker CD 3, CD 5, CD 7, CD 10, CD 19, CD 22. CD 23, CD 61, CD 68, CD 13, CD 33 & glycophorin. This enables complete labeling of leukemias and thus helps in deciding the treatment and predicting the prognosis.

The Laboratory also carries out complete work up of Anaemia including Thalassaemias. Besides the routine investigations , laboratory is assessing the Bone Marrow Iron Stores, Hb Electrophoresis and Hb A2 estimation by column chromatography, G-6 PD levels, Osmotic Fragility, HAM's test for PNH, Coomb's test and other rare test for proper labeling of type of anaemias.

The Laboratory is Using highly sensitive kits for PT(ISI-1) and PTTk on a fully automated coagulation system and test for Coagulation disorders including Factors VIII and IX assays to diagnose haemophilias. Presence of Lupus Anticoagulant in patients of Systemic Lupus Anticoagulant in patient of Systemic Lupus Erythematosous can also be detected using Kaolin Clotting Time Russel Viper Venom. Laboratory offer complete work up of DIC cases- including FDP, Thrombin Time, Fiberinogen assays and investigations for diagnosis of inherited Protein C & Antithrombin III deficiency which enables us to identify patients susceptible to thrombotic disorders such as cerebrovascular strokes, myocardial infarction etc.

Haematology laboratory is equipped with third generation Platelet aggregometer which enables diagnosis of rare platelet aggregation defects.

Bone marrow aspirates and biopsy procedures are carried out by the Haematology department to ensure adequate collection of samples.

The laboratory maintains a high degree of internal and external quality control.

Microbiology Lab
The department of Microbiology at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals aim at providing accurate and reproducible results on clinical material within the shortest possible time. This has been achived by round the clock laboratory services, online reporting and use of state of the art equipment.

Blood culture on automated system for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, fungi and mycobacteria indicate positivity from 3 hours onwards. Identification and sensitivity of most of the organism grown could be reported in about 4 - 6 hours, on an automated system. Thus organisms causing life threatening infections resulting in bacteraemia could not only be grown , but their identification & sensitivity would also be available in about 10 hours time, which would help greatly in institution of early specific antimicrobial therapy.

Conventional culture for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, fungi and amoebae from clinical specimen other than blood is carried out on most appropriate media in controlled environment. Identification & sensitivity of bacteria can be reported within 4-6 hours on automated system, thus reducing the time of availability of report by almost a day.

Conventional culture of Mycobacteria takes 4-6 weeks. However, with automated system which we have acquired recently, the first of its type in SAARC nation, it is possible to report positive to report positive cultures from seventh day. once the growth is available the sensitivity can be reported in another seven days.

Detection of specific antibodies against different infecting organism ,bacteria, fungi, parasites and virus ) and autoimmune diseases are carried out both by conventional & ELISA system. More than 60 different types of ELISAs are performed in our department . Almost all conventional serological test are available.

Quality control (Q.C.) and quality assurance (Q.A) are strictly implemented and usually authenticated by reproducible result from other laboratories in India & abroad.

The department is actively involved in infection control activities of the hospital. Epidemiology and surveillance of hospital associated infections and training of all categories of staff is an ongoing programme. from time to time guideline on different topics are issued which are complied periodically in the Hospital manual.

The department is also involved in teaching & research. Different courses run by the department are :

» Post - Graduate Medical Course : DNB Mircobiology (National Board of Examinations)

» DMLT for laboratory technician training is association with Indian Medical Association.

» The short term training and preparation for research projects is being provided to Msc. students of different Universities and Labroatory technicians of different institutions.

» There are a number of ongoing research projects centering MRSA, Tuberculosis, Hospital Infections, Pseudomonas infections and antimicrobial resistance. In addition to these collaborative research projects with national & international institutions are regularly carried out.

Histopathology & Cytopathology Lab
The Histopathology laboratory provides opinions on all kinds of cases from Gynae, Urology, Gastro-intestinal, Cardiovascular, Orthopaedic and Respiratory Medicine and highly specialised areas are such as Neuropathology, Oncology and Transplant (liver & renal) pathology. Frozen section studies including Neurosurgical cases are done routinely. The department also supports the newly started breast screening programme in the hospital. Outside cases in form of specimens for review slides are also reported.

In order to achieve the goal of early and reliable reporting , the laboratory is equipped with high quality precision equipments including the Histokinette 2000, Reichert Jung tissue processor, Histoembedder- Jung, Autostainer-XL Leica, Rotary microtome Leica 2035, and the Lecia CM1800 Cryostat. The laboratory also has facilities for Phases contrast, Floorescent & Polarisation microscopy is being done, particularly for diagnostic applications in the field of Oncology. Prognostic indications like ER and PR receptor studies are also being carried out in breast cancer cases.

The Cytopathology section is equipped with a 3rd generation cytocentrifuge and an autostainer. Both Exfoliative and Interventional Cytology (Fine Needle aspiration Cytology) are practised, Liaison with the Radiology dept. for imaging guidance (under Ultrasound and Computed Tomography) renders virtually all body sites accessible to the Fine Needle (for FNAC), thus allowing reliable tissue diagnoses at low cost and minimal discomfort to the patients.