Blood testing can scare many people. Understandably, most people don’t like the idea of a needle in their arm. However, pathology is one of the most important breakthroughs in medical history. Think of pathology as analysing the soil around a plant; if the soil is too acidic or caustic, it can lead to problems in the growth of the plant. The same concept applies when laboratories and practitioners study a sample of your blood.
According to the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, pathology test results influence about 70% of healthcare decisions. Patients have the right to know what tests are being conducted and what their results mean.
When understanding your pathology results, your best interpreter would be your regular or treating practitioner who requested the pathology test. They are the most qualified, as they would understand many factors about your body and medical history that influence diagnosis and treatment.
This can include:
With that, there are general universal results that mean the same patient-to-patient. One example is measuring your cholesterol. The primary markers used to analyse cholesterol levels are HDL and LDL. HDL is commonly known as ‘good cholesterol’; it is best that this result be on the higher end. LDL is known as ‘bad cholesterol’; it is best that this result be lower.
Another common blood test is hormone testing, which measures certain hormones that reveals information about mood and function and is very dependent on your sex. For example, an excessive amount of oestrogen in females can result in:
While in men, high levels of oestrogen can mean:
When a pathology test is performed, the results can vary from lab to lab. This can be due to a range of factors, such as the equipment used, method of measurement, but most commonly, the biggest influence on different results are the changes in your body throughout the day.
This being said, when your results are recorded, they are printed on a results page with a given reference range. The reference range can vary between each lab to account for the differences mentioned above. A reference range is considered the ‘safe zone’ for your results. Generally, if you are within this range, your results are normal. If your results are outside of the reference range, it indicates a deficiency or an abundance of a certain blood marker in your body.
Your result, in relation to the reference range, can help indicate and identify potential issues in your body, accounting for ~70% of healthcare decisions, streamlining the path of diagnosis, and ongoing health management.
When browsing for tests on PathDirect, click on “Learn More” to see which markers are being analysed in each blood test performed along with a brief description of their responsibility in your body.
