Why can’t a single blood test show you all the information you need instead of having to take multiple tests for different markers?
In: Biology
1) as you said, there are different “markers” we’re looking for. These markers may be specific for a certain organ or disease or may be non-specific (such as acute phase reactants that increase in ANY inflammatory state)
2) the things we measure in our body have different testing principles. For example: we can measure proteins by serum electrophoresis to detect diseases such as multiple myeloma while we would have to use isotope dilution mass spectrometry to measure Urea.
3) another important thing to consider is: there are many tests whose functions may overlap. So we can’t really have a one size fits all type of test since some diseases may have similar results and it would be extremely difficult to diagnose the patient with just one vague test.
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