A simple explanation of what all
blood, urine, faeces and other pathology tests mean.
The reason for performing them,
the normal range of results,
what abnormalities may mean
and the way in which they work.
Written for nurses
and patients who
wish to know more about
the way in which doctors investigate illnesses.
Written by the author of a pathology guide for doctors
that has been published in 85 countries and eleven languages.
Doctors, when faced with a challenging or sometimes relatively routine problem in a patient, reach for a pad of pathology request slips, and start ordering tests, often using obscure abbreviations and terms that are totally beyond the comprehension of those without a medical degree. When the results return, the patient is usually told no more than they are all right or not, and the further explanation is left in the hands of the doctor.
Many patients would like to know more. Why is the test being ordered? What is the test? How does it work, and not only what the normal results should be, but what does an abnormal result mean.
Nurses also often want to know why their patient is being investigated and what the results may mean.
This book will answer those questions in terms that nurses and the average lay person should be able to understand.
Every pathology test that can be performed on any bodily fluid is included in this extraordinarily comprehensive guide, from common tests such as a full blood count, to esoteric tests for unusual inherited diseases.
Tests can be looked up under both their full name and their abbreviation, and they are arranged under the substance being tested, so that all blood tests are in one section (by far the largest) while urine tests are in another, and even the more obscure tests on substances such as amniotic fluid (around the baby in a pregnant woman’s uterus) and cerebrospinal fluid (from the spinal cord and around the brain) are in their own sections.
Each section starts with an explanation of the test substance (eg. blood, urine and how it is collected and tested. Tests that are commonly known (eg. PSA for prostate cancer) and the extremely rare are all covered in this very comprehensive book.
Any terms or abbreviations that may be unfamiliar to the reader should be defined in the Definitions or Abbreviations sections near the beginning of the book.
At the back, this book has a guide to the less common diseases that may be mentioned in the text so that the conditions mentioned in the pathology section can be better understood.
Patients should find this book useful in managing their own health, and nurses in managing the health of their patients.
This book and the data it contains, are available for publishing or electronic use.
