General Question

Jeruba's avatar

Medical person: what is my doctor looking for?

Asked by Jeruba (56031points) October 13th, 2018

The lab order form says:
Basic Lipid (AMA) (S)
Comprehensive Metabolic (AMA) (S)
ANA w/reflex Titer (S)
CBC with diff & platelets (L)
Sedimentation rate (ESR) (L)
TSH (H) – marked with the note: reflex free T4
Vit. B12/Folate (S)

I can look up what these things are individually, but I don’t get a bigger picture from them. What does he think I might have?

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6 Answers

Tropical_Willie's avatar

It sounds like a full blood work up.

“what is my doctor looking for?” You don’t have answer (what they’re looking for) before the tests

JLeslie's avatar

ESR and ANA – Autoimmune disease indications (could signal lupus or another autoimmune disease, there are many)

TSH T4 – Thyroid slow or fast

Other things in your panels:

Liver function

Kidney function

Red blood cells, could indicate anemia or another blood thing

White blood cells, if high could mean infection.

Electrolytes

Glucose

Low B12

Cholesterol

Have you been feeling tired? Itchy? Dry skin and eyes? Dark mark on your face? Pins and needles in your extremities? Changed sleeping habits? Rapid heart rate? Slow heart rate? Feeling hot all the time or cold all the time? Muscle pain?

What did you complain about?

JLeslie's avatar

A couple more questions, have you had headaches, or a lot of bruises? Was your liver enlarged? Lymph nodes swollen? He could also probably be ruling out leukemia, but I think it’s more likely he thinks it’s something else. Something not scary like that, so don’t panic because I mention. I really doubt that is his conxern.

Jeruba's avatar

@Tropical_Willie, no, you don’t have an answer, but you do have a hypothesis. What I want to do is read his mind, of course.

@JLeslie, gahhh. I mean, thanks, but yikes to your questions. Maybe I’ll just mind my own business until I get a report.

gondwanalon's avatar

Your doctor is not looking for any one specific area of your health. Those tests are basic tests used to assess your health. If any of these test give abnormal results then at that point your doctor will repeat the test with the abnormal result and order more specific tests to verify a disorder.

Good health!

JLeslie's avatar

^^That’s basically right. Plus, a lot of diagnosis are a process of elimination.

Side note: The OP pointed out to me that I should state I’m not a medical professional. I’m just going by what I know having been tested for all the things listed.

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