Diagnostic testing allows a physician to evaluate your symptoms and determine if there is a health condition that explains them. When you undergo diagnostic testing, you’ll complete a physical health exam, answer questions about your health history, and give your medical specialist detailed information about your symptoms, including when they started, whether anything relieves them, and what makes them worse. Your physician may perform laboratory testing or recommend other diagnostic tools like x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and more. Here’s a quick look at how accurate diagnostic testing is at identifying the cause of your symptoms.
Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and Vital Signs
Taking your blood pressure, heart rate, and vital signs is one of the first set of diagnostic tests a doctor or nurse will use to evaluate your health. All are non-invasive and can give your medical team insight into how you’re doing at that exact moment. Because they provide instantaneous information, your team may repeat these tests while you’re at an urgent care or immediate care facility. These tests won’t offer broad insight into a specific health condition, but will let your team know if you have an immediate health threat they need to address.
Blood, Urine, and Skin Tests
Blood and urine testing is highly accurate for confirming a suspected diagnosis. Skin testing is typically used to determine allergens, and can be effective and accurate at confirming or assisting in the discovery of food allergies, food sensitivities, seasonal allergies, and measuring your reaction to other key types of allergens.
MRIs, CT Scans, and X-Rays
An x-ray is the fastest and most accessible form of diagnostic imaging. It can spot fractures, dislocations, misalignments, and foreign objects that might be causing your symptoms. An MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, provides very fast, high-resolution diagnostic images that can be used to spot injuries and identify musculoskeletal conditions and other health problems including sports injuries, organ failure, tumors, gallstones and kidney stones, spinal injuries, brain damage, and more. A CT scan is fast and detailed, and is often used in emergency situations to identify blood clots, bone fractures, and organ injuries.
At ImmediateCare Arizona, we offer a variety of different types of diagnostic testing in Tucson, AZ as part of our immediate care, emergency care services, and personalized holistic care services. To learn more about our diagnostic testing options and other services, or to schedule an appointment, call us today at (520) 800-8229 or book an appointment online.