Category: Lab & Diagnostic Testing

Most people probably have had blood drawn at some point in their lives. Blood tests analyze various components of your blood to detect physiological and chemical changes in the body. These blood tests can indicate things such as what diseases a person may have, how effective their medications are, and how their organs are functioning.

By getting blood work each year, your doctor is able to track the way your body changes throughout your life. Even if you are healthy, getting blood work now can help give your doctor a baseline so should something change in the future, they can compare results and detect subtle changes.

But what tests should you be getting? There are many different types of blood tests that indicate different things. Talk to your doctor at your annual physical about which tests they would recommend for you.

What are the Different Types of Blood Tests?

Fisher-Titus hosts several health screenings throughout the year where individuals can pay out of pocket for various blood tests at a reduced rate. For individuals who are uninsured or for those whose insurance may not cover these types of tests, this can be a more affordable option to get the testing they need.

The tests below are all offered at varying prices at all Fisher-Titus Community Health Screenings.

Complete Blood Count – The complete blood count acts as a quick snapshot of your overall health. It measures the number, variety, percentage, concentration, and quality of platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. It is useful in screening for infections, anemias, and other hematological abnormalities.

Basic Metabolic Panel – The basic metabolic panel measures glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, electrolytes, and calcium. This test can help determine whether your kidneys are functioning properly and helping you maintain the right balance of water, salts, and minerals in your blood.

Lipid Profile – The lipid profile provides your doctor with information on your cardiovascular health. This test measures cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, and LDL.

Liver Enzymes – The liver enzymes tests can indicate if there is liver disease or damage. This test can also be used to monitor liver disease in a person who has a diagnosed problem. The test measures alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST). ALT helps convert proteins into energy and AST helps metabolize amino acids. When the liver is damaged, these enzymes are released into the blood and elevated levels will show on the test.

Complete Blood Count, Basic Metabolic Panel, Lipid Profile, and Liver Enzymes are all part of the Blood Analysis test offered at Fisher-Titus Community Health Screenings.

PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) – PSA is a protein found in men that is created in the prostate. A PSA test checks the level of this protein. Elevated levels can indicate if a person has an enlarged prostate, prostate inflammation, or prostate cancer.

Hemoglobin A1c – A Hemoglobin A1C test is one of the best ways to assess glucose status. The test measures your blood sugar over the past few months. The results can help your doctor diagnose prediabetes and diabetes and is also used to help manage diabetes in patients who have been previously diagnosed.

TSH (Thyroid) – Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) controls thyroid hormone secretion. If levels from this test are lower than normal, it can suggest hyperthyroidism. If levels are above normal, it can suggest hypothyroidism. Symptoms of thyroid imbalance can be hard to pinpoint and some individuals may not even have any symptoms. A TSH blood test can help your doctor diagnose mild thyroid imbalance before it progresses and becomes a larger problem.

Vitamin D – Having inadequate levels of vitamin D in the blood is a very common issue. Vitamin D deficiency can be linked to osteoporosis, increased fracture risk, cancer, autoimmune dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, lowered immunity to colds and flu, type 1 diabetes and hypertension. By regularly checking your Vitamin D levels, your doctor can determine if you have a Vitamin D deficiency and can help you determine the appropriate steps to correct it.

About Rodney

Rodney Tuttle is the Director of Laboratory at Fisher-Titus. The next Fisher-Titus Community Health Screening is on October 24 from 7-10 a.m. Schedule an appointment by calling 419-660-2646. You will be asked to choose from a list of tests and provide the name of your physician. Registration closes on October 21 at 5 p.m. For more information, visit our online event calendar at fishertitus.org/upcoming-events.

There are several medical conditions that may require individuals to use needles or sharps at home. After the sharp has been used, it is important that you take steps to dispose of it properly. Improper sharps disposal can cause injury not only for individuals in your household but for others in your community.

The FDA recommends a two-step process for disposing of home-generated sharps:

1. Place all needles and other sharps in a sharps disposal container immediately after use. This reduces the risk of needle sticks, cuts, and punctures from loose sharps. These containers should be kept out of reach of children and pets.

FDA-cleared sharps containers are the best option in which to place used sharps. These containers are made from rigid plastic and come marked with a line that indicates when the container should be considered full and be disposed of.

If an FDA-cleared container is not available, some household containers made of heavy-duty plastic may be considered an OK alternative. The container should be leak-resistant, remain upright during use, and have a tight-fitting puncture-resistant lid. Once the container is about 75% full you should duct tape the lid, label it as a sharps container, and dispose of the container.

All sharps disposal containers should be:

• Made of heavy-duty plastic
• Able to close with a tight-fitting, puncture-resistant lid, so sharps are not able to come out
• Upright and stable during storage and use
• Leak resistant
• Properly labeled to warn of hazardous waste inside the container

2. Dispose of used sharps containers according to your community guidelines. In the city of Norwalk, sharps containers should be taped shut, marked with the word sharps, and placed inside your trash bag or trash can. Do not separate it from the rest of your trash, it must be inside the bag or can.

If you do not live in Norwalk, reach out to your solid waste hauler about their policy on disposing of sharps as they may offer a program to pick up your sharps containers or have different regulations. Ask your doctor or pharmacy if they have options for disposing of sharps containers.

About Rodney

Rodney Tuttle is the Director of Laboratory at Fisher-Titus. For more information on proper needle disposal, visit https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/consumer-products/safely-using-sharps-needles-and-syringes-home-work-and-travel.

Part 2: Innovations in Heart Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Last week, I discussed the importance of prevention when it comes to heart disease. We mentioned exercise and diet as some of the best ways to care for your heart. Prevention is the single best thing you can do for your heart.

However, if you do find yourself dealing with heart disease, there have been many recent innovations in the diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions.

Heart Care and Innovative Treatments

Heart care in the near future includes creatively-designed stents for treating heart attacks. Stents are medical devices that permit the flow of blood through a clogged blood vessel. For the coronary arteries, the sizes of stents are about the size of a spring you’ll find in a clickable writing pen. And although numerous examples of creative designs exist, I’m intrigued by laser-etching methods that make the inside of a stent appear like the inner lining of an artery. I’m also interested, as incredible as it may seem, in stents with the flexibility of a caterpillar. Stents that have the look and feel of the lining of coronary arteries can help your body adjust more quickly to their placement. The purpose and advantage of a “caterpillar stent” is that it moves in sync with the continuous motion of the heart like a caterpillar.

For someone who’s been diagnosed with heart failure, innovative treatments include soft, flexible robotic sleeves that wrap around the heart to gently assist the heart’s very own pumping action. Furthermore, pacemakers are becoming noticeably better at coordinating your heart’s electrical activities.

Another area receiving a lot of attention is the regeneration of heart tissue. In these cases, adult stem cells – not embryonic stem cells – are placed on an underlying mesh that’s compatible with the body’s immune system in order to cultivate and grow the highly-specialized muscle cells of the heart. And regeneration of heart tissue is an important thing since a moderate-to-severe heart attack typically damages a billion heart cells. In fact, researchers have also had success at turning cells from skeletal muscle into useful heart muscle. And what’s really fascinating is that by using advanced techniques in magnetic resonance imaging (also known as MRI), we can now see how well the strands of newly-generated tissue tie-in and work with native heart tissue. However, as of today, perhaps the most incredible innovation in heart care happened last year when researchers in Israel successfully took the first steps in producing a viable 3D-printed heart.

Heart Tests and Imaging

Heart tests and diagnostic imaging have come a long way. From the different methods for stress testing to ultrasound tests (also known as echo cardiac tests) to the specialized-imaging studies produced in nuclear medicine to the special tests performed with computed tomography (also known as CT scans or CAT scans), your doctors have a wide range of options to choose from.

At Fisher-Titus Heart & Vascular, in addition to offering cardiac rehabilitation, we offer exercise and nuclear medicine stress testing, ultrasound scans of your heart, and real-time, image-guided assessments (and treatments) of your coronary arteries in our cardiac cath lab. The future is very bright in cardiovascular care.

In the January/February 2020 issue of Radiologic Technology, Kevin Wininger, an exercise physiologist and radiology technologist with Fisher-Titus Heart & Vascular, wrote about the innovative treatments that researchers are pioneering in heart care. He works in Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and the Pacemaker / ICD Clinic. For a closer look at Kevin’s article, “Biomimicry and Bioengineering in Cardiovascular Care,” visit: www.radiologictechnology.org. Visit fishertitus.org/heart for more information about our Heart & Vascular services.