It is not correct when the patient himself wants to determine what should be tested in the laboratory, and it is absolutely not recommended to start browsing the Internet with the results in hand. Written by Dr. György Temesszentandrasi.
In my previous articles, I presented autoimmune diseases , dealt with allergies , prepared a summary of reflux disease and drew attention to colonoscopy as a screening test.
As the number of patients contacting us with questions related to laboratory tests has increased significantly in the recent period, I felt it was time to outline the importance of this extremely important diagnostic test in a few sentences. At the same time, we forgive the fact that
for at least half a year, medical students only learn how to perform various laboratory tests and the science of evaluating the results,
not to mention the fact that laboratory medicine is a separate branch of medicine, where knowledge of an extremely complicated and complex system is required in order for the doctor to successfully pass the specialist exam in this field of science.
For this reason, we can state that although almost everyone has had a blood test by the time they reach adulthood, and we may know roughly what is being tested from the blood, the prescription and evaluation of the laboratory test should be left to a specialist. In English,
it is not correct when the patient himself wants to determine what should be tested in the laboratory (of course, a sufficiently open-minded doctor will accept a reasonable suggestion), and it is absolutely not recommended to start browsing the Internet with the results in hand.
Because, as I wrote above, drawing conclusions from laboratory results is a medical task that requires great expertise and experience. Without it, incorrect conclusions can be reached, which only leads to unnecessary nervousness, haste, sleepless nights, and further unnecessary examinations. It is also important to state that we must know what our goal is with the investigation. And this goal is certainly foreseen by the good specialist.
At the same time, laboratory testing is one of the most appropriate and easily accessible – but not cheap – methods for assessing health.
It can be used as a screening test in the same way as for targeted diagnostics or to prove the success of treatment, or to screen out potential side effects during therapy and thus prevent them. This also shows that its importance is enormous, its benefits are enormous, and in knowledgeable hands it is a real gem of medical diagnostics.
The question arises, how often should it be used as a screening test when there are no symptoms or complaints?
We recommend that a laboratory test be performed on average once a year, but that it should be preceded by a discussion and consultation with a doctor.
And to dispel a misconception: a discrepancy detected during the blood test, the "starred result" may not immediately mean a big problem, it may even be a harmless discrepancy.
A typical example of this is a slightly elevated bilirubin level. In itself, this is not considered pathological, in the absence of other liver abnormalities, it is only the reduced functioning of one enzyme – otherwise in 5 percent of the population – that is behind it. The patient must be reassured, and no further examination is usually necessary. Or we can use the elevated potassium level as an example. This can be caused by a serious illness such as kidney failure or adrenal insufficiency, it can also be caused by a drug effect or a side effect, but it can also be that the value is high only because the blood taken waited too long to be processed before the test, and in fact there is no problem with the patient's potassium level.
These examples also show how complex the analysis of even a single laboratory parameter is, the range of conclusions that can be drawn is very wide, so you have to realize that you need a specialist.
But you also need to know that even a single deviation can mean serious trouble, and even in the case of a negative lab, we cannot sit back and relax. This will be discussed in the next section.
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