RT Book, Section
A1 Wener, Mark H.
A2 Stone, John H.
SR Print(0)
ID 1180194629
T1 Laboratory Testing
T2 Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Rheumatology, 4e
YR 2021
FD 2021
PB McGraw Hill
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259644641
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1180194629
RD 2024/04/25
AB Laboratory  tests  for  rheumatic  disease  are  performed  for  various  reasons:  to  diagnose,  to  clarify  whether  a  condition  is  inflammatory  or  noninflammatory,  to  establish  a  prognosis,  to  monitor  disease  activity,  to  assess  the  extent  or  severity  of  organ  involvement,  to  predict  efficacy  and  toxicity  of  therapies,  and  to  monitor  treatment  side  effects.  In  addition,  there  may  be  administrative  indications  for  laboratory  testing,  for  example,  to  qualify  for  a  specialty  medication,  to  qualify  a  patient  for  a  clinical  trial,  to  determine  if  a  patient  satisfies  classification  criteria  for  a  disease,  and  to  include  a  patient  in  data  registries  and  repositories.  To  support  a  clinical  diagnostic  impression,  laboratory  tests  are  most  effective  when  used  in  conjunction  with  data  from  the  history  and  physical  examination.  Laboratory  tests  for  autoimmune  rheumatic  diseases  nearly  always  lack  sufficient  sensitivity  and  specificity  to  establish  diagnoses  independently  and  therefore  should  be  considered  “probabilistic”  rather  than  diagnostic  tests.  Table  3–1  summarizes  laboratory  and  other  tests  commonly  used  to  help  clarify  the  diagnosis  in  typical  presentations  of  patients  with  rheumatic  diseases.