Top 15 Common Types of Blood Tests

Did you know that blood tests are supposed to be done regularly?

You’re not the only one who think it is only necessary during checkups, required lab test, or an emergency. But because of the many types of blood tests available, regular exams will lead to early detection of underlying diseases and could extend your life.

In fact, a complete blood test should be done every 6 months.

With the prevalence of illness and the alarming number of sick people, a blood test could save lives. It will diagnose the early stages of illness and enable doctors to provide the necessary treatment or intervention.

How Blood Tests Help Doctor

• Evaluate the function of your organs and to check whether or not they are working properly.
• Diagnose different diseases and health conditions.
• Determine if your blood clots as it should.
• Determine your risk factor for heart disease.
• Check if the medicines you are taking are doing their job or not.

Most blood tests take only a few minutes to complete. But certain types of blood tests may require you to fast before the blood draw.

15 Common Types Of Blood Tests

1. Complete Blood Count (CBC)

A full blood count is one of the most commonly done blood tests. This is carried to gather information about your blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

It will also help a doctor determine a great deal about the state of health. An abnormal blood count indicates medical conditions, such as infection, anemia, or some kind of cancer.

It is also used for screening and management of certain diseases.

Generally, you don’t need to fast before a CBC. But if you are scheduled for additional blood tests, you may need to fast for 12 hours before a test.

2. Blood typing

Before blood transfusion or blood donation, you would have to undergo blood typing to identify which blood group you belong.

This is vital because the wrong blood transfused could cause the immune system to attack the red blood cells. The result could be life-threatening complications.

This test is also done during pregnancy to check for rhesus disease, a rare possibility that an unborn child’s blood is different from that of the mother, resulting in mom’s immune system attacking her baby’s red blood cells.

Early detection of a risk of rhesus disease will help save the baby’s life. The mother will be injected with a medicine that keeps her immune system from turning on her child’s red blood cells.

3. Renal Profile

Also known as Kidney Panel or Kidney Function Panel, this type of blood test provides information about your kidneys’ health. This is carried out as part of general health screening, test for risk of developing kidney disease, or to monitor someone already suffering from kidney problems.

The test checks the levels of creatinine and blood urea nitrogen that will provide insights into your kidneys functioning and risk of kidney failure. It also measures various substances such as electrolytes—sodium, potassium, and chloride, proteins, minerals, and glucose. All these will help determine your kidney’s current state.

You may be instructed to fast for 8 to 12 hours before the test is performed.

Renal profile is not run as one panel but with each test run independently or with a different test. Glucose test, for example, is done to screen, diagnose, and monitor diabetes.

4. Coagulation Tests

This is done to check if your blood clots the normal way. You may have hemophilia, von Willebrand disease, or other bleeding disorder if blood clotting takes a while and leads to hemorrhage. The test will also assess your risk of developing thrombosis (clots) in your blood vessels.

If a doctor thinks you have a clotting disorder, more coagulation tests may be done to identify if you’re suffering from coagulation-related conditions, such as liver disease, thrombophilia or excessive clotting, and its opposite, hemophilia.

The tests are also recommended for people taking medication that may affect the blood’s ability to clot.

The international normalized ratio (INR) is a type of coagulation test that monitors the dose of anticoagulants and checks for correct dosage.

Some of the types of coagulation tests are CBC, Factor V assay, Platelet count, Prothrombin time (PT or PT-INR), bleeding time, and thrombin time.

5. Tests for Liver Function

Phlebotomists will draw your blood and perform extensive screening to see how your liver performs. Considering the vast number of liver functions, this test will cover several elements.

• Protein will be checked to measure your body’s state of nutrition, specifically for Albumin and Globulin.
• Bilirubin is checked for high concentrations that indicate jaundice.
• Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST or SGOT) and Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT or SGPT) enzymes are checked for abnormalities that may indicate liver disease.
• Alkaline Phosphatase enzyme is tested to diagnose proper functioning of bone and liver.

6. Lipid Profile Test

This test is performed to determine the types of fats (lipid) in the bloodstream, including the amount and distribution. These types of blood tests check for total cholesterol, good cholesterol (HDL), bad cholesterol (LDL), triglycerides, and risk ratio (good to total).

• Cholesterol

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 100-199 mg/dL

Optimal Range: 180-200 mg/dL

• LDL

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 0-99 mg/dL

Optimal Range: Under 100 mg/dL

• HDL

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 40-59 mg/dL

Optimal Range: Over 55 mg/dL

• Triglycerides

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 0-149 mg/dL

Optimal Range: Under 100 mg/dL

It is important to maintain an optimal range of LDL to prevent clogged arteries.

Before a blood cholesterol test, you may be asked to fast for 12 hours to ensure that food is completely digested and will not affect the test results. Because fasting is not always necessary, ask your doctor or the laboratory.

7. Blood Glucose Test

This is performed to detect diabetes, early-stage metabolic syndrome, and coronary artery disease. The Current Laboratory Reference Range for Glucose is 65-99 mg/dL, while the optimal range is 70-85 mg/dL.

Monitoring of glucose levels involves fasting and non-fasting tests.

The latter includes A1c, Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1c), Glycohemoglobin, or Glycated hemoglobin exam that show whether you have better control of your diabetes over the last few months.

HbA1c, in particular, shows the average amount of glucose in your blood over a certain period.

• 4% and 5.6% means no diabetes
• 5.7% and 6.4% means a higher chance of getting diabetes
• 6.5% or higher indicates diabetes

8. Antibodies Tests for Rheumatoid Factor

This test will help diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that affects approximately 80% of adults. In some cases, rheumatoid factor is also detected in normal individuals or those with other autoimmune diseases.

It checks the blood for the presence of rheumatoid factor, an antibody that binds to other antibodies, which are normal proteins in the blood. The normal range is less than 14 IU/ml. Any result above it is considered elevated, high, or positive for rheumatoid arthritis.

9. Cancer Blood Tests – Tumor Markers

These types of blood tests will help diagnose certain cancers or determine if you have an increased risk of developing a particular type of cancer.

• Prostate cancer can be diagnosed through prostate-specific antigen (PSA). It will also detect prostatitis or enlarged prostate and other related problems.
• Ovarian cancer can be detected by a CA125 protein test.
• A woman’s increased chances of developing breast and ovarian cancers can be determined by checking for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
• Gastrointestinal tumors are shown as elevated CA19-9 antigen in the blood.
• Monitoring of patients with malignant cancers, such as breast, gastrointestinal, lungs, and pancreatic cancers, is done through CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) tests.

10. Heart Test – Cardiac Markers

If blood shows elevated levels of homocysteine, you are at a greater risk of heart attack or stroke. High levels of this amino acid can lead to blockage of blood vessels, stroke, and heart attack.

• 4 and 15 micromoles/liter (µmol/L) of homocysteine is considered normal by most laboratories
• Below 10 to 12 µmol/L indicate optimal levels
• Above 15 µmol/L is considered high

Hyperhomocysteinemia or high levels of homocysteine are further classified as moderate, intermediate, and severe, with levels of 15 to 30 µmol/L, 30 to 100 µmol/L, and greater than 100 µmol/L, respectively.

The optimal range of homocysteine is different for men and women.

• Male

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 4.3-15.3 µmol/L

Optimal Range: < 7.2 µmol/L

• Female

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 3.3-11.6 µmol/L

Optimal Range: < 7.2 µmol/L

11. C – reactive protein (CRP) Rest

This test measures the body’s level of inflammation that could indicate a life-threatening degenerative disease, such as diabetes, cognitive decline, and coronary heart disease. It measures C – reactive protein in the blood.

As a sensitive marker of systemic inflammation, CRP is a powerful predictor of coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases. When the test is carried out at the very early stages of vascular disease, appropriate intervention through Inflammation therapy or diet will prove helpful.

Men and women have a different optimal range of high-sensitivity CRP.

• Male

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 0-3 mg/L

Optimal Range: <0.55 mg/L

• Female

Current Laboratory Reference Range: 0-3 mg/L

Optimal Range: <1.5 mg/L

12. Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)

In this procedure, blood is tested to help diagnose conditions linked to inflammation. These include arthritis, Crohn’s disease, endocarditis, giant cell arteritis, and polymyalgia rheumatica.

What phlebotomists do is measure the length of time that the red blood cells fall to the bottom of a test tube. The quicker it takes the higher the levels of inflammation.

Further tests is then carried out to confirm the presence of an infection.

13. Genetic Testing and Screening

This is one of the types of blood tests where a DNA sample is extracted from your blood to check for specific mutation or genetic change. These changes may indicate genetic conditions, such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, Polycystic kidney disease, sickle cell anemia, and spinal muscular atrophy.

This genetic screening is highly recommended for people whose brother or sister developed a genetic condition later in life. If your sister has Huntington’s disease, for example, genetic testing and screening will help evaluate your risk of developing the condition.

14. Thyroid Function Test

This is used to test the levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in your blood. Where needed, tests for thyroid hormones—thyroxine and triiodothyronine—are also carried out.

Low levels of these hormones indicate an underactive thyroid, while the opposite indicates an overactive thyroid.

Thyroid imbalance doesn’t show any symptoms or may be nonspecific, which is why routine screening for thyroid function is recommended. This is because undiagnosed mild hyper- or hypothyroidism can progress to clinical disease states. Someone with hypothyroidism, for example, can have an increased risk of atherosclerosis if they also have elevated serum cholesterol and LDL.

The Current Laboratory Reference Range of TSH is 0.35-5.50 mU/L, while the Optimal Range is 0.35-2.1 mU/L.

The American Thyroid Association recommends TSH levels screening to be carried out beginning at age 35 and every 5 years thereafter.

15. Blood Gases Test

This is one of the types of blood tests that must be specifically done in a hospital. Blood is also drawn at the wrist rather than from a vein in your arm. This is why it is painful than most.

This test will check for pH balance of your blood—balance of acid and alkali, and to check the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide (C02).

An imbalanced pH may indicate respiratory problems, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or pneumonia. It can also mean problems that affect your metabolism. These include persistent vomiting, kidney failure, and diabetes.

High levels of carbon dioxide, on the other hand, make the blood acidic that could result in dysfunction in several vital organs, particularly the brain. The only effective way to minimize the damage of C02 to the brain is to force remove the gas from the lungs.

Final Word

These are just some of the common and widely done types of blood tests. Considering the kind of information they reveal, you should have your blood tested even when you feel well and healthy. Remember that some diseases don’t show symptom in the early stages but is sure to reveal itself in your blood.

So make an appointment for a complete blood count or other types of blood tests.