Blood testing provides information about a patient’s condition, including viral infections, hormone imbalances, glucose and cholesterol levels, and blood type. Results are presented in a written report and may be explained upon request. Blood testing is used in medical facilities and offsite labs.
Blood testing is a form of medical testing in which blood is screened to provide information about a patient’s condition. Blood contains a huge amount of very useful information about what is happening inside the body. There are a wide variety of reasons for ordering blood testing, ranging from a blood test in a hospital used as part of the diagnostic process to a routine STI screening requested by a patient who is concerned they may have been exposed to sexually transmitted diseases infections.
In the blood test, a blood sample taken with a needle from a vein or a blood sample from a finger is tested in a laboratory. Blood samples taken from a vein can be spun in a centrifuge to separate the different blood components for a complete blood count (CBC), in which the levels of the various blood components are determined. They can also undergo a variety of tests; sometimes multiple vials are taken to provide a large blood supply for testing.
Blood may be tested to reveal the presence of viral infection and provide a viral load count, indicating how many copies of the virus are present in the blood. Tests can also be used to check hormone levels, which can be used to diagnose various hormone imbalances, monitor the progress of hormone therapy, or determine whether or not a woman is pregnant. A blood test can also be used to check glucose levels, such as in fingertips that some people with diabetes take to check blood sugar and to check cholesterol levels, the amount of medications in the blood, the levels of various minerals in the blood and to evaluate enzyme levels in liver function tests.
Blood testing is also used in blood matching, a process used to determine blood types. It is important to know a patient’s blood type when she is donating or receiving blood, and broader matching is conducted for organ transplants to find the best match. If someone’s blood doesn’t match, serious complications can occur during transfusion or organ donation.
Some medical facilities have an in-house laboratory that can do blood tests on site and return results very quickly. In other cases, it may be necessary to ship blood samples to an offsite lab. Blood test results are presented in the form of a written report providing numerical values and any comments from the laboratory technician, and are kept in a patient file. As a general rule, if the blood results are inconsequential, a doctor will not call the patient. Curious patients can ask to have their findings explained.
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