An integrated system is described that has been developed for the processing of data from metabolic balance studies. The system detects and converts into digital form the output of AutoAnalyxers, reads unknowns, constructs standard curves, carries out quality control operations, performs the required calculations and prints out the tinal, full balance study. Only a small proportion of the daily work load is recorded manually and entered by hand through a keypunch. Since the introduction of the automated system the productivity of the laboratory has approximately doubled and important savings in personnel, time and cost have been realized. The system has the additional value that it can accept inputs from equipment other than AutoAnalyzers and can thus contribute to a variety of laboratory activities.
Metabolic
balance studies have provided valuable information about the pathogenesis and treatment of a wide variety of disease states including disorders of fluid, electrolyte and acid-base equilibrium, disturbances of divalent cation balance and abnormalities of nutrition. Despite its widespread applicability, many investigators have been reluctant to utilize the balance technique because it looms as a formidable procedure. Large numbers of samples are produced, multiple analytic determinations are required, the voluminous data require careful checking, and tedious repetitive calculations are often needed to obtain derived information. In recent years the introduction of automated equipment into the laboratory has reduced somewhat the work load on the laboratory; devices such as the AutoAnalyzer (Technicon) have simplified greatly the task of the chemist and technician. In addition, some laboratories are now using peak detectors (Z,2) and others have begun to utilize computer-based printouts of laboratory data (3-6). Until the present time, however, there has been no attempt to create a totally integrated system of analytic equipment and computer programs to handle an entire balance study from the chemical analysis to the final data printout. In the present paper we describe such a system. This system accepts and processes biological specimens, carries out