subject: Preventive Diagnostic Testing Route To A Long And Healthy Life [print this page] Present day human beings are subjected to a lot of stress and lifestyle disorders. This is taking its toll on health with early onset of disease in several cases. However the onset of disease can be detected early on through appropriate use of preventive diagnostic testing.
Preventive diagnostic testing diagnoses disease, measures progress or recovery from disease and confirms that a person is free from disease. For example, it helps in preventing the onset of disease by diagnosing it or of preventing worsening of an existing disease. In a majority of cases, early detection plays an important role in keeping patients healthy. A yearly, routine physical examination for healthy patients is recommended by the American Medical Association. The patient shares the responsibility of his health along with his doctor, and is required to be actively involved in making considered and appropriate decisions regarding preventive tests.
Diagnostic tests include consulting room tests such as auscultation (stethoscope), weighing, height, girth, measuring blood pressure, pulse, breath, reflex tests, eye and hearing tests, rectal and vaginal examination. Invasive and sterile procedures include biopsies and lumbar punctures. Other tests that require laboratory analysis are urine tests, stool tests, saliva tests, hair tests, blood tests (ESR, CBP, CMP, ABG), DNA tests, Smear tests, X Rays, Ultra sound scans, ECGs, EEG, CAT scans, MRI, Endoscopy (colonoscopy, cystoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, colposcopy)
For women preventive diagnostic services may include Blood Pressure, Pap smear, Cholesterol, Mammography, Sigmoidoscopy, Fecal Occult blood, thyroid. For men preventive diagnostic services may include Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Sigmoidoscopy, Prostate Cancer Screening, thyroid etc. Mammography and pap smear tests detect onset of cancer (breast, vaginal, cervical) Fecal Occult Blood tests, Sigmoidoscopy and Colonoscopy for colorectal cancer, Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer, Glucose monitoring for diabetics to reduce risk of blindness, amputations and Bone Mass Measurement to detect osteo porosis. If tests are abnormal the patients can be educated about the risks and preventive measures before too late. If tests are normal it indicates a healthy life and patients can live an assured life.
Lifestyle diseases are attacking people early in todays environment. Stress, pollution, changes in lifestyle and food habits are some of the major reasons for onset of chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and thyroid related problems. It is therefore necessary to check for blood related tests (CBP), sugar scan (diabetes) and thyroid periodically once a person attains the age of 40.
A CBP test (Comprehensive Blood Test) can reveal important values such as WBC, WBC Differential Count, RBC count, Erythrocite count, Hematocrit, Hemoglobin, Mean Corpuscular volume, Platelet count, Mean Platelet volume etc. This test can reveal information from infection, malignancy, leucopenia, bone marrow problems, anemia, hypoxia, thrombocytopenia, thrombocytosis etc.
Thyroid condition tests include blood tests, x ray tests, imaging, biopsies etc and are commonly tested when patient suffers thyroid symptoms such as weight changes, fatigue, depression, neck and throat symptoms. Common Thyroid conditions include hyperthyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Hashimotos disease, Graves disease, goiter, nodules and thyroid cancer. Normally thyroid tests seek out the TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) range.
Preventive Diagnostic Services are vital for health care. With newer studies and breakthroughs in medical technology, preventive diagnostic tests can drastically reduce chances of disease, risk factors and mortality. Today, we can ignore preventive diagnostic testing only at our peril.
