Simple Blood Screening Can Reveal Potential Problems

It's so simple, yet so important. Probably very few people realize how much can be learned from a simple blood screening. But 31 tests can be performed that may be able to detect any potential problems regarding cholesterol, glucose, carbon dioxide, calcium, and potassium, among many others.

 And all it takes is two tubes of blood. Joe Habaly has been at Ohio Valley Hospital for 32 years, and is the lab director who coordinates and sets up the schedules for the health check blood screenings. He explained that the procedure is a simple one.

 "I coordinate the schedules to get the room reserved for the screen, which we have every two months at the hospital. We usually start around 8 in the morning. Patients who have to be pre-registered stop over and they pay their fee, and then we draw two tubes of blood from them."

 From the two tubes of blood, Habaly said tests - basically a blood count and chemistry profile - are run in the lab, and are usually done in the same day. A report is then sent to the patients' personal physicians, as well as to the patients themselves if they designate that they would like to have a copy.

Habaly said that by looking at the report, you can tell what's normal and what's not. "There are little flags on the report that say if something is high or low, if it's out of range."

Habaly said that physicians can review the little flags and order more blood work for the patients if they think it's necessary. He gave an example: "If you have a high glucose reading it could mean that you have diabetes. The doctor would then do a workup on you for diabetes, which would include more specific tests. They do glucose tolerances or they can do what they call a glycohemoglobin that tells you what your average glucose is for the past two to three months.

"So this is just a screening, and then if anything abnormal appears, the doctor should go further with the testing."

Habaly pointed out that approximately 42 percent of the patients screened have had one or more abnormalities that should have been followed up by their physician. He said they were mostly elevated cholesterol levels, along with high glucose levels.

"And if anything is really off, we would call the doctor and tell them that the patient has results that are in our established critical range, which means they need attention right away."

That emphasizes the importance of having blood screenings. As Habaly summarized, "Your blood is circulating through your body, and it's a good indicator of what's going on."

So simple, so important, so easy. And the cost is only $25. So what are you waiting for?

 WHAT'S IN YOUR BLOOD?

A Health Check Blood Screening at Ohio Valley Hospital can test for more than 30 different health conditions, including: glucose, sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, blood, urea nitrogen, creatinine, calcium, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, AST, alkaline phosphatase, LDH, CPK, cholesterol, triglycerides, phosphorous, uric acid, osmolality, globulin, anion gap, A/G ratio, B/C ratio, white blood cell count, red blood cell count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet count, RBC indices.

 For more information about Health Check Blood Screenings, call (412) 777-6173.