4 Diseases That Doctors Can identify with Blood Tests

Blood tests are essential for helping doctors identify health problems early on and helping them make critical treatment interventions. Doctors recommend yearly annual checkups and blood tests to ensure you are in good health even if you are not experiencing symptoms. In addition, laboratory analysis of your blood can provide information about changes in your body over time and how they are impacting your health. Blood tests are sent to a lab and are typically processed by an expert in dermatopathology in Pittsburgh, PA.

Why blood tests matter.

Blood tests are an essential part of early disease detection. But they can also help do the following:

• Treat diseases
• Diagnose and determine stages of diseases like cancer.
• Prevent diseases.

Levels of specific biomarkers in our blood can indicate if we need certain medical interventions or changes in lifestyle to help prevent diseases like diabetes.

• Organ function monitoring
• Monitor disease progression over time.
• Identify a person's risk of developing diseases like breast cancer in the future.
• Medication effectiveness monitoring.

Concentration levels of certain medications in the bloodstream can help doctors adjust their dosages. In addition, doctors can determine how a person's illness responds to a particular drug.

Disease Identification Through Blood Tests.

A blood test can be used to identify the following diseases:

Aids and HIV

Testing for the AIDS virus uses several different blood tests, including:

• Nucleic acid tests

This test, also called an RNA test, can identify HIV as soon as 10 days after exposure. A doctor may prescribe this test if you have a high risk of contracting the virus or have developed flu-like symptoms.

• Antibody screening tests.

This test, also called an ELISA test, is very accurate and tests for the presence of a protein in the blood that the body creates two to eight weeks after infection with HIV.

• Antigen combination tests.

This test reveals whether the body has developed antibodies to HIV and can detect the virus earlier than an antibody test can. In addition, it is used to test for p24, an HIV antigen protein that develops two to four weeks after HIV infection.

Cancer

Your doctor will order a series of tests if they suspect that you have cancer. Cancer cannot be determined by blood tests alone unless you have blood cancer. Blood tests can only identify cancerous cells, proteins, or other substances in the blood.

Hepatitis C

Physicians can determine hepatitis C virus infection through a blood test. In addition, virus antibodies of hepatitis C can be determined by using an HCV antibody test.

Heart disease

The heart releases specific substances and proteins into the bloodstream whenever its muscles are damaged. Blood tests are used to measure levels of these substances circulating in a patient's blood and indicate the extent of damage to the heart. In addition, a cholesterol test is used to measure the risk of developing heart disease and the number of fats in a person's blood.

Blood tests are helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. Your blood tests are sent to a pathology lab, where they are examined by an expert in dermatopathology in Pittsburgh, PA. Though you will likely never meet your dermatopathologist, they still consider you their patient once they analyze your blood sample.