5 MYTHS ABOUT DISTRUSTING TEST RESULTS

Laboratory staff often hear patients say that they do not trust the quality of their work. In this article, we have collected 5 of the most common myths that raise suspicions about the reliability of research results from private medical laboratories, and also tried to shed light on skepticism of this kind.

Myth 1. "... The results of analyses from private laboratories are less reliable than in public ones... "

This opinion exists not only among patients, but also among some doctors, who categorically do not recognize the test of private companies. Perhaps it's all about the mentality of the people of the post-Soviet space. However, this is a misconception. Firstly, the process of obtaining a license and the requirements for the operation of any laboratory are absolutely the same, therefore, if a laboratory has a license, then the result of its tests cannot be rejected without any justification. Second, the walls of the building in which the test is made do not determine their outcome. Everything depends on the people who work in this building, on the reliability of the equipment and on the methods of quality control in production. OLYMP has internal and external quality control. Internal is done by the company's employees. External control is done by independent experts of large international companies. Its essence is as follows: the laboratory receives a sample of biomaterial in which it is necessary to determine the content of certain substances. All the necessary research done, after which the results are sent to the control body, where they are compared with the indicators of the standards. If no discrepancies in the results are found, the laboratory that passed the external quality control receives the corresponding certificate.

OLYMP CDL adheres to the principle of transparency of the entire technological process and provides its patients with the opportunity to personally make sure that this company can be trusted. Every client has the right, after prior notification, to visit the OLYMP laboratory itself and dispel any doubts.

Myth 2. "... Laboratory assistants deliberately write knowingly incorrect results in collusion with doctors, or they can simply confuse them... "

Theoretically, this is possible: it will not be difficult for an experienced laboratory assistant to write in the results "doubtful" or the upper limit of the norm of a particular blood indicator based on a preliminary diagnosis. In such a case, the disease is neither disproved nor confirmed - the responsibility of making a diagnosis falls entirely on the shoulders of the attending doctor. However, such cases can occur only where there is no automation of the workflow - where both the reaction and the filling out of the result form are carried out manually. In modern laboratories (in particular, in OLYMP CDL) such unacceptable attitude is excluded because of the full automation of the closed process of analysis, in which it is impossible to interfere and make a mistake. Any patient's request is recorded by a special program. It is assigned an individual barcode, which is glued to the test-tube with the biomaterial. Unique barcode is a guarantee that the results cannot be mixed up. Next, the test-tube is loaded into the analyzer, which makes all the necessary chemical reactions. Upon completion, the result of the analysis is automatically transmitted by the device to the computer and printed out at the touch of a button, it is important to note that you cannot enter your numbers yourself. In other words, if the patient receives a receipt after paying for the test, he can rest assured: the test result cannot be falsified.

Myth 3. "... The results of the tests often do not coincide with the clinical picture of the disease due to the poor work of the laboratory... "

Again, such a situation is only theoretically possible. Repeated analysis show that the discrepancy between laboratory data and the clinical picture of the disease in 90% of cases occurs due to non-compliance with the rules, the so-called pre-analytical stage of diagnosis. This stage includes the preparation of the patient for the test and the process of taking biomaterial. Laboratories that value their reputation train their staff in the technique of taking biomaterial, taking into account the requirements of international standards. The OLYMP CDL branches has internal protocols, for the knowledge of which procedural nurses are certified on a quarterly basis. For example, if a tourniquet sits too long on the arm before blood is drawn, it will cause the blood to clot. Consequently, the concentration of many substances in the blood will be overestimated. There are dozens of such features, and real laboratories consider it their duty to carefully monitor nursing staff for knowledge of these principles. A much more important factor affecting the outcome is the preparation of the patient. For example, taking medications, eating, exercising, stress, surgery, and even intimacy on the eve of some tests can significantly change their outcome. Special attention is paid to hormones, which have the peculiarity of being "released" into the blood in portions and sometimes at certain times. That is why the patient should be informed in advance about the specifics of hormonal biorhythm by the doctor. All the details of the rules for preparing for testing must be clarified in advance with the staff of the laboratory to which you entrust your health!

Myth 4. "... If different laboratories have different results, then one of them is not working correctly... "

Such a statement is not to be found among doctors, as they know very well that in most cases this is not the case. First of all, because there are not only different laboratory equipment, reagents, but also different units of measurement (mmol/l, ng/ml...) and diagnostic methods: manual or automatic, PCR or real time-PCR, ELISA or ECL... The method of determination itself plays an important role: for example, the results of blood glucose test will differ if the blood is taken from a vein or from a finger. In addition, as mentioned above, the human body is characterized by constant variability of many biological indicators. Some analysis done even one day apart may give different results. And again the violation of the pre-analytical stage: failure to follow the diet, stress, physical activity ... Thus, in order to avoid such errors, specialists of OLYMP CDL recommend to strictly comply with the preparation for analysis and control of certain indicators in the same laboratory on the same equipment.

Myth 5. "... The biomaterial is transported from the collection point to the laboratory itself, while the quality of the test suffers significantly... "

There is some truth in this saying if the test-tubes are delivered to the analyzer in the courier's pocket. It is quite another matter if all the necessary conditions of transportation are met, including the addition of special chemicals to test-tubes, delivery time, strict temperature regime, and the arrangement of containers for transportation. There is a worldwide trend to centralize laboratory analysis at major research centers, and blood sampling can take place hundreds of kilometers away from that center. There are whole scientific works on the stability of analytes in the external environment, according to which the norms for transportation of biomaterial are created. Therefore, you do not have to worry if the blood is taken in the treatment room and delivered to the laboratory from a distance. The most important thing to be sure of is how good the delivery was. The OLYMP CDL branches has its own courier service, which is trained to work with various biomaterials, and it has strict regulations for the delivery of samples from the collection point directly to the laboratory. You can check the couriers' performance by using thermochromes installed in the containers. Thermochromes on-line display the slightest disturbance of transportation conditions, thus OLYMP guarantees the quality of its research at every stage of production.

To summarize the above, we would like to point out that healthy skepticism in today's world is important, but if it degenerates into bias, a person often takes a blind step in the opposite direction to an objective assessment of their health!