Table 1. Clinical applications of ambient ionization mass spectrometry (AIMS).

Technique	Year	Type of sample	Application	Molecular Speciesa	Reference
DESI	2009	Human serum, rat brain section	Hydroxyl-containing molecules detection	Cholesterol, glucose, fructose, phospholipids	10
	2010	Human blood	Therapeutic drug monitoring	Sitamaquine, prazosin, terfenadine, verapamil	18
	2012	Brain tissue section	Brain cancer diagnosis	PS, PI, FA	24
	2014	Breast tissue section	Breast cancer diagnosis	FA, PI, PS, PE	21
	2014	Brain tissue section	Brain cancer diagnosis	2-Hydroxyglutarate	33
	2015	Prostate tissue section	Prostate cancer diagnosis	PE, PS, PC, PI	22b
LMJ-SSP	2008	Rat tissue	Drug and metabolites detection	Reserpine, glutathione, sulforaphane	27
	2013	Sheep blood	Protein identification, drug detection	Hemoglobin, hydroxypropranolol, hydrochloride	29
NanoDESI	2013	Mouse tissue section	Proteins and peptides identification	Hemoglobin, ubiquitin, PC, glutathione,	30, 31
	2016	Skin tissue	Psoriasis diagnosis	Choline, glutamic acid, canic acid, citrulline	32
DART	2013	Human serum	Metabolic fingerprinting screening	Not assigned	35
	2015	Human plasma	Metabolite quantification	Tyrosine	36
REIMS	2010	Human tissue	Tissue types identification	Phospholipids	44
	2013	Human tissue	Tissue types identification	PA, PE, PI	41
	2015	Human tissue, bacterial growth media	Tissue and bacteria identification	PA, PG, PI, PE, PQS	43
	2015	Porcine tissue, human tissue	Tissue (polyp) identification	TG, PI, PE	45
Touch spray ionization	2014	Human blood, human prostate, mouse brain	Therapeutic drug monitoring, cancer diagnosis	MDMA, methamphetamine, cocaine, PC, PS, PI, FA	55
	2014	Throat swab	Strep throat-related bacterium identification	PG	56
	2015	Prostate tissue	Prostate cancer diagnosis	PE, PS, PC, PI	22b
Probe-ESI	2013	Rat liver	Cancer diagnosis (hepatocellular carcinoma)	PC, TAG	58
	2013	Human urine, oral fluid, plasma	Illicit drug monitoring	Methamphetamine, morphine, cocaine, codeine	57
	2011	Human kidney, porcine kidney, stomach	Kidney cancer diagnosis	PI, PE, PS	59
Paper spray ionization	2010	Human blood, urine	Therapeutic drug monitoring	Imatinib, heroine, atenolol	66
	2011	Human blood	Therapeutic drug monitoring	Propranolol, atenolol	76
	2012	Human blood, serum	Newborn screening	Acylcarnitines	67
	2011–2016	Bovine whole blood, rat blood, human blood	Therapeutic drug monitoring, protein identificationc	Amitriptyline, cotinine, methamphetamine, citalopram, hemoglobinc	69, 72c, 77, 82, 97
Extractive-ESI	2007	Human skin	Metabolites detection	Nicotine, caffeine	87
	2013	Human breath	Metabolites detection	Acetonitrile	88
Laser ablation-ESI	2016	Bacterial colonies	Bacterial colonies identification	PE, PG, lipids, bacterial metabolites	91
Thermal desorption-ESI	2016	Human oral fluid	Pesticides identification	Paraquat, methamidophos, dimethoate, chlorpyrifos, methomyl, triphenyl, phosphate	92
	2016	Gastric lavage content	Medications identification	Acetaminophen, diphenhydramine, propranolol, doxepin	94

^a Abbreviations in this column: PS, glycerophosphoserines; PI, glycerophosphoinositols; FA, fatty acids; PC, glycerophosphotidylcholines; PE, glycerophosphoethanolamines; PA, phosphatidic acids; PQS, Pseudomonas quorum signal, e.g., 2-heptyl-3-hydroxy-4(1H)-quinolone; PG, phosphatidylglycerols; TG, triglyceride; TAG, triacylglycerol; MDMA, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. ^b TSI- and DESI-MS experiments were both conducted in ref. 22. ^c Protein identification of hemoglobin was only reported in ref. 72.