Lab Tests Online-UK is written by practising laboratory doctors and scientists to help you understand the many clinical laboratory tests that are used in diagnosis and treatment. The about this site page describes how the site can help you.  Search under conditions and diseases and find lab tests used for particular diagnose and manage or alternatively, if you know the test name, just search under tests.

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Each year more than 700,000 newborn babies in the UK have laboratory tests carried out on blood spots to screen for five rare inherited diseases. If these diseases are detected early in life, the baby can be treated, in order to improve health and prevent disability or even death. From July 2012 a pilot study will screen more than 400,000 newborns for a further five very rare diseases. The results will be evaluated after one year by the UK National Screening Committee.

After wide consultation, the US Endocrine Society has suggested that all patients should have a laboratory measurement of blood glucose (blood sugar) on admission to hospital. Raised values are common, even in non-diabetics on general wards, and control of blood glucose has been shown to result in fewer complications and a shorter hospital stay.

Biliary atresia is a rare life-threatening malformation of the bile duct that obstructs the passage of bile from the liver to the gut and causes jaundice. An operation to relieve the obstruction is needed to prevent severe liver damage and possible liver transplantation. It is more likely to be successful the earlier the diagnosis is made. In a study published in the December 2011 issue of the journal Pediatrics researchers report that babies with biliary atresia have raised blood concentrations of conjugated or direct bilirubin as early as the second or third day of life. This blood test is commonly performed in most UK laboratories and the authors suggest it might prove a useful screening test.