Despite of the widespread use of hydrogen and methane breath test, the variability in testing protocols, gas measurement techniques, and interpretation criteria continues to challenge the reproducibility and comparability across centers, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association hence presents the first Asian monograph guiding application and interpretation of breath test. The monograph was formulated according to the framework of indications, preparatory process, performance, and interpretation of results, as well as future direction for research.

As a supplement to immunoassay, mass spectrometry plays an important role in clinical laboratory. With the application and development of mass spectrometry technology in proteomics research, clinical laboratory gradually expanded the analyses of small molecules to proteins/peptides, such as thyroglobulin, insulin-like growth factor-Ⅰ, apolipoprotein E and amyloid protein, etc. However, it faces challenges such as long time and high cost of pretreatment optimization, lack of reference materials and imperfect supervision. Although emerging proteomic biomarkers have been slow to translate into clinical diagnosis, the large proteomic database provides a favorable support for future development.