Chapter 2 discusses the pros and cons of popular screening tests and details those that may not be worthwhile. Chapters 3 and 4 then give general overviews of imaging and laboratory tests, respectively, which together comprise the bulk of diagnostic tests. Detailed descriptions of the major relevant diagnostic tests. In compiling the lists of tests and preparing their descriptions, we talked not only with the doctors who order and interpret tests, but also with the nurses and technicians who perform them and the laboratory scientists who analyze them. A few explanations of these summarized factors are necessary.
Procedures vary from region to region and from doctor to doctor, and they are constantly changing.
For example, as doctors and technicians perform certain tests more frequently, they become more skilled in their use and the risk to the patient declines. While these tests may have originally required the patient to be admitted to the hospital as a safety precaution, they can now be done on an outpatient basis. In the general information tables, under the heading How Long It Takes, we have given the time the patient is involved. It may take a doctor or nurse only a few seconds to take a sample of mucus or other secretion when an infection is suspected, but it may take weeks in the laboratory to grow a culture of the infectious agent. When that indicates how long the patient may have to wait to receive an answer.