Laboratory

A medical laboratory or clinical laboratory is a laboratory where tests are done on clinical specimens in order to get information about the health of a patient as pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

Evidence-Based Medicine Improves Patient Care

Medical knowledge is accumulating and changing with such dizzying speed that the medical community has found it needs new methods to cope with it all. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a formalized system for helping health professionals cope with this information explosion and the role of laboratory testing has becomes necessary. 
 

Laboratory Test

A laboratory test is a medical procedure in which a sample of blood, urine, or other tissues or substances in the body is checked for certain features. Such tests are often used as part of a routine check-up to identify possible changes in a person’s health before any symptoms appear. Laboratory tests also play an important role in diagnosis when a person has symptoms. In addition, tests may be used to help plan a patient’s treatment, evaluate the response to treatment, or monitor the course of the disease over time.

Laboratory test samples are analyzed to determine whether the results fall within normal ranges. They also may be checked for changes from previous tests. Normal test values are usually given as a range, rather than as a specific number, because normal values vary from person to person. What is normal for one person may not be normal for another person. Many factors (including the patient’s sex, age, race, medical history, and general health) can affect test results. Sometimes, test results are affected by specific foods, drugs the patient is taking, and how closely the patient follows pre-test instructions. That is why a patient may be asked not to eat or drink for several hours before a test.

Some laboratory tests are precise, reliable indicators of specific health problems. Others provide more general information that simply gives doctors clues to possible health problems. Information obtained from laboratory tests may help doctors decide whether other tests or procedures are needed to make a diagnosis. The information may also help the doctor develop or revise a patient’s treatment plan. All laboratory test results must be interpreted in the context of the overall health of the patient and are generally used along with other exams or tests. The doctor who is familiar with the patient’s medical history and current condition is in the best position to explain test results and their implications. Patients are encouraged to discuss questions or concerns about laboratory test results with the doctor.

Understanding Your Lab Report

If you’ve had laboratory tests performed, you may have been given a copy of the report by the laboratory or your health care provider. If not, you may wish to request one from your physician. Once you get your report, however, it may not be easy for you to read or understand, leaving you with more questions than answers. This article points out some of the different sections that may be found on a typical lab report and explains some of the information that may be found in those sections.

Different laboratories generate reports that can vary greatly in appearance and in the order and kind of information included

Your lab report may look very different than from one laboratory to another, but it will contain each of the elements required for standard report. It may also contain additional items not specifically required but which the lab chooses to include to aid in the timely reporting, delivery, and interpretation of your results.


Test report date

This is the day the results were generated and reported to the ordering physician or to the responsible person. Tests may be run on a particular patient’s samples on different dates.Since a patient may have multiple results of the same test from different days, it’s important that the report includes this information for correct interpretation of results.

Specimen source, when appropriate. 

Some tests can be performed on more than one type of sample.For example, protein can be measured in blood, urine or cerebrospinal fluid, and the results from these different types of specimens can indicate very different things.

Date and time of specimen collection.

Some test results may be affected by the day and time of sample collection. This information may help your doctor interpret the results. For example, blood levels of drugs are affected by the time a dose of the drug was last taken, so results of the test and its interpretation can be affected by when the sample was collected.

Name of the test performed

Test names are often abbreviated on lab reports. You may want to look for abbreviated test names in the pull down menu on the home page of this site or type the acronym into the search box to find information on specific tests.

Test result

Some results are written as numbers when a substance is measured in a sample as with a cholesterol level (quantitative). Other reports may simply give a positive or negative result as in pregnancy tests (qualitative). Still others may include text, such as the name of bacteria for the result of a sample taken from an infected site.

Abnormal test results

Lab reports will often draw attention to results that are abnormal or outside the reference range by setting them apart or highlighting them in some way. For example, “H” next to a result may mean that it is higher than the reference range. “L” may mean “low” and “WNL” usually means “within normal limits.”

Critical results

Those results that are dangerously abnormal must be reported immediately to the responsible person, such as the ordering physician. The laboratory will often draw attention to such results with an asterisk (*) or something similar and will usually note on the report the date and time the responsible person was notified.

 
How Reliable is Laboratory Testing?

Laboratory tests drive a large part of the clinical decisions our doctors make about health and diseases from diagnosis through therapy and prognosis. Given the crucial role that test data play in medical decision-making. 

Collecting Samples for Testing

Today, laboratory technologies allow testing on a wide variety of samples collected from the human body, beyond just blood and urine. The body naturally eliminates them, those that are quick and easy to acquire since they reside in the body’s orifices, and some that require minor surgery and anaesthesia to access.

Coping with Test Pain, Discomfort, and Anxiety

Nobody particularly enjoys having their blood drawn or providing a urine or stool sample, but a medical test conducted on a small sample collected from your body can give your doctor information that can help save or improve the quality of your life. 

Staying Healthy in an Era of Patient Responsibility

As health care consumers have been given more responsibility for their care, more attention has been given to the value of preventive medicine. 

Test Preparation: You’re Role

One of the most important factors in determining the accuracy and reliability of your laboratory test is you, the patient. This brief article explains your role in the process and ways in which you may need to prepare for your lab tests.

Laboratory Methods

Labs use a variety of methods to test the numerous analytics that are of interest to the medical community. Understanding the method used for a test provides a broader context for understanding your test results.

The units of measurement that labs use to report your results can vary from lab to lab. It is similar to the way, for example, your doctor chooses to record your weight during an examination. He may decide to note your weight in pounds or in kilograms. In this same way, labs may choose to use different units of measurement for your test results. Regardless of the units that the lab uses, your results will be interpreted in relation to the reference ranges supplied by the laboratory.

Reference intervals (or reference ranges)

These are the ranges in which “normal”  values are expected to fall. The ranges that appear on your report are established and supplied by the laboratory that performed your test. They are made available to the doctor who requested the test(s) and to other health care providers to aid in the interpretation of the results. 

Interpretation of results

In certain circumstances, the lab may note on the report what certain test results may indicate.

Condition of specimen

Any pertinent information regarding the condition of specimens that do not meet the laboratory's criteria for acceptability will be noted. This type of information may include a variety of situations in which the specimen was not the best possible sample needed for testing. For example, if the specimen was not collected or stored in optimal conditions or if it was visually apparent that a blood sample was haemolysed or lipemic, it will be noted on the report. In some cases, the condition of the specimen may preclude analysis (the test is not run and results are not generated) or may generate additional comments directing the use of caution in interpreting results.

Deviations from test preparation procedures

Some tests have specific procedures to follow before a sample is collected or a test is performed. If such procedures are not followed for some reason, it may be noted on the report. For example, if a patient forgets to fast before having a glucose test performed, the report may reflect this fact.

Medications, health supplements, etc. taken by the patient

Some tests results are affected by medications, vitamins and other health supplements, so laboratories may obtain this information from the test request form and transcribe it onto the lab report.

Reference Ranges & What They Mean

The "Normal" or Reference Range

"Your test was out of the normal range," your doctor says to you, handing you a sheet of paper with a set of test results, numbers on a page. Your heart starts to race in fear that you are really sick. But what does this statement mean, "Out of the normal range"? Is it cause for concern? The brief answer is that a result out of the normal range is a signal that further investigation is needed.

Tests results—all medical data—can only be understood once all the pieces are together.Take one of the simplest medical indicators of all—your heart rate. You can take your resting heart rate right now by putting your fingers on your pulse and counting for a minute. Most people know that the "average" heart rate is about 70 beats per minute. How do you know what a "normal" heart rate is? We know this on the basis of taking the pulse rate of millions of people over time.

You probably also know that if you are a regular runner or are otherwise in good physical condition, your pulse rate could be considerably lower—so a pulse rate of 55 could also be "normal". Say you walk up a hill—your heart rate is now 120 beats a minute. That would be high for a resting heart rate but "normal" for the rate during this kind of activity.

Your heart rate, like any medical observation, must be considered in context. Without the proper context, any observation or test result is meaningless. To understand what is normal for you, your doctor must know what is the normal heart rate of most other people of your age, and what activity you are doing at the time—or just before—your heart rate is measured.

The interpretation of any clinical laboratory test involves an important concept in comparing the patient’s results to the test’s "reference range." It’s also commonly called the "normal range" but today reference range or reference interval is considered more appropriate. The term reference interval is increasing in use and is often used interchangeably with reference range. For simplicity, we use the term reference range.

At Josan Holistic Hospital we belive in Evidence Based Medicine

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