CREMONA – The protagonist of the column ‘The doctor answers’ is Dr. Sophie Testadirector of the Laboratory of chemical-clinical and microbiological analyzes and of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center of the Cremona Hospital.
What is laboratory medicine?
“AND a branch of medicine in which biological samples of different nature are used for the purpose of carrying out specific measurements that can have two uses: the first, aimed at research for an evolution of our knowledge; the second, to obtain results that will lead to diagnostic-therapeutic measures necessary to modify the patient’s state of health. There are thousands of different types of tests carried out on different biological samples.”
What is the purpose of laboratory diagnostics?
«It can essentially be reduced to four elements: confirm or exclude where there is a diagnostic suspicion, direct towards a therapy, monitor the drugs taken by the patient, prevent extremely relevant pathologies. Unfortunately, nowadays the analysis laboratory is seen a bit like a supermarket, where tests are requested which very often are inappropriate and which can lead patients to diagnostic paths that are not useful”.
So do check ups make sense?
«We have extensive literature in which it has been seen that check-ups are not functional compared to the thousands of diseases we know about. The diagnostic test makes sense if related to clinical suspicion. People really like it, but it’s not useful. However, it is different to carry out tests for preventive purposes such as the search for occult blood in the feces which is recommended for the population over 50 years of age to exclude gastrointestinal diseases”.
Are all testing laboratories the same?
«Laboratories are not all the same and – as with other branches of medicine – they develop different specialist areas. Inside a laboratory we can say that there are many laboratories. The laboratory should therefore not be seen as a space, but as a set of skills. Today we have very high level instruments available which however require the expertise of the professional who makes the difference. The laboratories are also subjected to quality controls, some mandatory, others not. The laboratory of Cremona, in particular, has always invested heavily in control systems which are very expensive, but which allow you to understand how you are working.”
The column, created in collaboration with Asst Cremona, can be listened to on the newspaper’s website and on its YouTube channel.
