Blood Tests for Diagnosing and Measuring Lupus

Can you diagnose lupus with blood tests alone? Today, you cannot diagnose lupus with a single blood test. Even antinuclear antibody tests are not definitive. They are just part of the puzzle. The current lupus diagnostic workup includes: several different blood tests tests of kidney and liver function symptom records a review of your family history a review of your medical history You can read more about getting diagnosed on the CDC’s webpage. Behind the scenes: blood tests After trained professionals take your blood, it is sent off to a lab for testing. The blood samples are kept track of throughout the process with barcodes. These barcodes don’t usually tell the lab technicians much about you, but they do make sure that you receive the correct test results when they are all done. For many tests, the blood is first spun very fast in a machine called a centrifuge. The centrifuge forces the blood to separate into two different parts: the plasma (the liquid portion of the blood) and the serum (the solids that are in the blood). Blood tests can use plasma, serum, or whole blood, depending on the tests. These days, tests are usually done by a machine which does the analysis under the supervision of a lab technician. The machine can do various things, including acting as a microscope or performing chemical experiments on the blood sample. Exactly what the machine is tasked to do depends on the specifics of the test.

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