2007-12-17

A Test, can save lives


I wish there is a Test that can quickly diagnose the disease when patient come to hospital or go to see doctor.

Maybe it is a dream. But I think it may come true. Because more and more diseases are found to be related to gene mutation. A gene test might be the solution, and it is usually quick and not invasive.

These days, I can always see or hear the stories people's disease being diagnosed however it is too late to operate or treat.

I had a patient who came to hospital because of diarrhea and vomiting, which might be life-threatening for this kidney transplant patient. He had all sorts of test, blood tests, CT, ultrasound etc. However, no diagnosis can be clarified. We just felt he is a odd sick man. One day morning, he said to us he felt numb from his chest to his legs. He, then again, had MRI of bone.

What they found in this result is he has tumor in spinal, and it is un-operative now. When they review all the previous imagines, they found a sign of this tumor which is operative. However, it was too hard to figure at that time......

I saw another story, which is similar to this. A little boy had been waiting 11 days for all the tests to exclude all the possible cause, and finally find a rare cancer. By that time, this little boy was already very sick.

We, in medical society, have been seen many people have been waiting for the results of all sorts of the tests. Because there is no A Test can diagnose all the diseases. What all the tests do are to give information to let medical stuff to exclude some possible disease, so the last one is the diagnosis. Because lots of disease has similar signs and symptoms, it is very hard to diagnose the primary disease depending on these.

However, gene technic has been developed very well. There are lots of disease has been clarified that are related to gene mutation. A simple blood sample might tell the truth of the disease by the gene technic one day .....


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