An Overview of Medical Tests
There are a large number of medical tests available nowadays that can help in the diagnosis of particular diseases and disorders. Tests are needed by doctors, specialist, physicians and even researchers to get a better grasp of their patient’s health and to better understand his ailment. Tests may be performed to check for certain particular diseases or they may be general tests to acquire knowledge of the patient’s overall health.
Some tests may be performed for a multitude of reasons. For instance, apart from diagnosing a disease, tests may also be performed for screening which is the procedure of examining the blood for certain infections. Test results help physicians determine the extent of the disease and the damage that has already taken place inside the body. This makes advising proper medications a lot easier and accurate.
There are various types of medical tests that can be performed on the patient on his doctor’s recommendation. For instance, tests may be performed on various body fluids to test for any disorders or disturbance in normal functioning of the body and its organs. The commonly analyzed fluids are blood, urine, synovial fluid and cerebrospinal fluid. Synovia is a viscous fluid that is secreted by the membrane lining joints and tendons whereas cerebrospinal fluids are related to the brain and spinal chord.
The fluids from digestive tract and others such as sweat or saliva may also be examined.
When your doctor advises you to get an x-ray then you are using the science of medical imaging to help him get a view of your certain body part. X-ray machines are the most widely used equipments for imaging. Scanning, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and angiography, all belong to the group of imaging tests.
Medical imaging tests have vital significance and importance due to their application in chronic cases of diseases and their symptoms. These tests are non-invasive and may be based on radiography, sonography, resonance imaging or nuclear imaging. Radiographic tests include x-rays, tomography, CT scan etc. Imaging systems such as CT scans are obtained by reconstruction of finite details collected from the scanning system and is highly dependant upon the scanning speed and number of scanning elements. The angle of scanning plane and the contrast values associated with each sector are also equally important.
Whereas sonographic tests include ultrasound and echo imaging tests. Resonance imaging tests constitute of NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). Nuclear imaging utilizes a device known as gamma camera and neutron probe and is far more expensive.
A technique known as echography may also be used by doctors which utilizes the rebounds of sonic or sound energy from a target and detects it position, geometry and density by various projection tools.
While the above mentioned tests are non-invasive there may be invasive tests which include biopsy, fibroscopy and surgical section microscopy.
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