• Question: how do we know if you are diagnosed with something?

    Asked by anon-353983 on 21 Mar 2023.
    • Photo: Jacob Wildfire

      Jacob Wildfire answered on 21 Mar 2023: last edited 21 Mar 2023 9:50 am

      There are a bunch of different ways diagnosing someone with a disease might occur.

      The first thing might be feeling unwell, be that generally (tired, mood changes, pain) or in a specific location (pain in arm/leg, bloated tummy). These are called symptoms. Alternatively, someone might be at greater risk of a disease because of their lifestyle, age, or family history.

      They would then undergo testing to find the specific cause. Now, the type of test that might be used depends on the nature of the symptoms, and the suspected disease. For example, to test for an infection we might look for signs that the immune system is activated (fever, swelling, redness) and then test for the suspected bug (by growing it, or by PCRs).

      If the patient had a stroke, however, none of these methods would help us diagnose because there is no bug to find, and the immune system isn’t activated! So what we might do then is a CT scan to look for a blockage in blood vessels the brain. But the doctor would know to do this test instead because of the initial symptoms they might see. These act as little clues.

      If they find a cause, then great! They can now make a plan of action to treat the patient. However, the doctor will usually still keep an open mind, because the disease might always be more complicated than we thought, or become worse, or end up being something else!

      So:
      We look for clues that something is wrong, and that a diagnosis is needed (symptoms, risk).
      We use those clues to perform more specific tests (PCR, CT scan, blood tests, etc.).
      Hopefully, we then find out the specific cause (diagnosis) and can begin treatment.

    • Photo: Hannah Tanner

      Hannah Tanner answered on 22 Mar 2023:

      If you have a disease diagnosed based on a laboratory test, your test results from the lab would go to your doctor. When they get the results they will interpret what they mean (sometimes with help from the scientists in the lab) and then tell you what the results mean for you.

    • Photo: Edward Guy

      Edward Guy answered on 22 Mar 2023:

      Diagnosis is a bit like being a detective. You look at the evidence (the symptoms) and try to work out the most likely suspect or suspects. Then you do investigations (diagnostic tests). Sometimes these tests can confirm exactly what the cause is (like fingerprints would) but sometimes it’s difficult with some diseases to get hard proof, so the only way to reach a diagnosis is by eliminating all the other suspects (possible causes of the illness) to leave you with just the one final possible cause. The doctors will often then treat this final possible cause and, if the treatment works, then that also proves the diagnosis was correct.

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