Many diseases need to be properly diagnosed in order to truly ascertain whether or not the patients are positive. For example, frequent urinating, increased hunger, and increased thirst are symptoms usually associated with diabetes. But before you start wolfing down any medicine for diabetes, you need to take a few tests first.
Diagnostic or confirmatory tests help analyze or rule out an individual’s medical condition. Hence having knowledge about these medical exams could really help reduce the risk of the diseases getting worse. Here are some of the diagnostic tests or confirmatory tests you need to know:
HIV Tests
There’s a set of confirmatory tests you need to take in sequence in order to know whether or not you’ve acquired HIV. The reason for these exams having to be taken in order is for it to be as reliable and as accurate as possible. Even if you score positive in the first test, it’s still difficult to interpret if you are HIV positive or not. Hence, samples like this would be retested a couple more times just to be more precise. (Note: In case the first test result is negative, the samples won’t be put through the next tests.)
Cholera Tests
Cholera is a hard illness to diagnose, especially because its victims are infected by a diarrhea-inducing pathogen that’s almost impossible to be detected using various diagnostic tests. Typically, patients who are suspected of having cholera would be isolated first before the stool tests are given. Rapid tests are given to suspected patients and the Crystal VC dipstick rapid test helps confirm if there would be an epidemic.
Tuberculosis Tests
Diagnosing tuberculosis (especially if it’s active) based on signs and symptoms is difficult. Thus, you need to take a few initial tests first to determine whether or not you have the disease. So far, the best among these tests are the chest X-ray test and the sputum culture test. On the other hand, if you’re not ill with TB but at high risk to have it, you can also take the Mantoux tuberculin skin test. Other tests like the blood tests and the nucleic acid amplification tests aren’t recommended much by doctors since they’re not very effective in terms of treatment.
UTI Tests
Urinary Tract Infection or UTI is relatively easy to diagnose through confirmatory tests. Obviously, these tests include urine and blood sampling, urinary tract Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Cystoscopy.
Colon Cancer Tests
Colon Cancer or Colorectal Cancer can be diagnosed based on signs and symptoms. Unfortunately, these often manifest itself too late, when the diseases is already critically spread in your body. So it’s better to take the right confirmatory tests before any sign and symptom pops up. Keep in mind that when the doctor finds something suspicious in the screening tests, more will be conducted to further assess your medical situation. Usually these include physical exams, blood tests, colonoscopy, biopsy, lab tests of samples, imaging tests like CT scans and MRI Scans, angiography and numerous more.
It’s best if you take the appropriate confirmatory tests if you feel like you’re coming down with something. Visit your doctor as soon as you feel any signs or symptoms; don’t let the disease spread before you act. Oh, and one more thing: Don’t self-diagnose! That could worsen your situation.