Labs and diagnostics

Taking a small part of something, such as blood or tissue, or choosing a group of people for a study.

How full something is; in nursing, usually the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood that is carrying oxygen.

A sample of cells collected by gently scraping a surface such as the skin, or the act of collecting it.

Testing people who have no symptoms to find a disease or risk early.

A test given to people who have no symptoms, to find a disease or risk early.

How strongly something responds; in lab work, which drugs stop a germ, or how well a test finds people who have a disease.

The clear, yellow liquid left from blood after it clots and the cells are removed.

A blood test that measures the amount of iron carried in the blood.

A blood test for ketones, acids the body makes when it burns fat for energy instead of sugar.

A blood test that measures how concentrated the blood is, by the amount of dissolved particles in it.

A heart rhythm that starts in the sinoatrial node, the heart's natural pacemaker.

A thin layer of a sample, such as blood or cells, spread on a glass slide to be looked at under a microscope.

A mineral in the blood that controls how water moves in the body and helps nerves and muscles work.

A sample of blood, urine, stool, tissue or other body material collected for testing.

Single-photon emission computed tomography: a nuclear medicine scan that makes 3D pictures using a small dose of a radioactive tracer.

A device that measures how much air a person breathes in or out, and how fast.

Mucus and other material coughed up from the lungs and lower airways.

A lab test that grows germs from mucus coughed up from the lungs, to find out which germ is present.

A tapered narrowing of the upper airway below the vocal cords that looks like a church steeple on a front-view neck x-ray.

A lab test that grows germs from a stool sample to find the bacteria causing an infection.

A balloon-tipped catheter passed through a large vein and the right heart into the pulmonary artery, to measure pressures inside the heart and lungs.

A test that measures the amount of chloride in sweat collected from the skin.