What are rapid blood tests for?

Photo: Freepik

Written by Dr Gerald Thang

“Hi Doctor, when will my mum’s blood tests results come out? What? It will be out in 1 to 2 days? No, she can’t wait so long to adjust her medications!”

Demand for Faster Blood Test Results

You or your family member could have been started on a medication while hospitalised. Some medications can affect potassium levels and they can become too high or too low after discharge. And this could be life threatening!

We can understand your anxiety when you must wait for a day or two for traditional blood tests results. That’s because any delays could mean missing out on opportunities to intervene and normalise any abnormal blood levels.

Here at A Healing Heart Medical, we marry advanced technology and the traditional art of Medicine. Using state-of-the-art equipment for rapid blood tests at our clinic, it allows us to get results within 15 min with minimal amount of blood sample.

You can be assured of the results too because our blood test devices undergo regular laboratory certification by an international laboratory auditor that is approved by the Ministry of Health.

What can rapid blood tests do?

1. Differentiate between you having a heart attack with angina or non-cardiac chest pain if you are having chest pain.
2. Identify if your breathlessness could mean that you are having heart failure.
3. Check PT/INR levels if you are on warfarin for risk of bleeding or blood clot.
4. Check haemoglobin, hematocrit, creatinine, and urea nitrogen levels of patients infected with dengue virus or if you have history of anaemia.
5. Monitor blood oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH levels of patients with chronic lung disease (COPD).
6. Check sodium, potassium, creatine, urea levels that could fluctuate in patients with kidney failure that can be life threatening if too high levels.

How do we help with assessment of acute/chronic chest pain?

Did you feel discomfort in the centre of your chest? Does the pain last more than a few minutes but would go away temporarily and return? Is the pain a squeezing sensation with uncomfortable pressure or pain? Do you feel breathless and have shortness of breath?

If these experiences have been happening in the past few days, it’s best to get answers quickly by doing rapid blood tests. Time is a crucial factor in heart disease management. You want to know the test results immediately.

We have an established Chest Pain Protocol that will enable us to confirm whether you are experiencing angina, heart failure or non-cardiac chest pain.

We will risk stratify you and refer you to tertiary centres with 24hr Cardiac Percutaneous Coronary Angiogram Service immediately if test results show that you have an impending heart attack or heart strain with heart failure.

If your condition is serious but not immediately life threatening, we have specialist partners in Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth Hospitals where your condition will be co-managed outpatient.

How do we monitor warfarin levels?

Rapid blood test is available to check PT/INR levels especially for patients who are on warfarin. The results will allow us to adjust warfarin doses on the very same day of the test without having to wait another day.

If INR is too high, there is a risk of bleeding and rapid blood tests allow us to stop and reduce the warfarin doses immediately. When INR is too low, there is a risk of blood clot formation and rapid blood tests allow us to increase the warfarin dose on the same day of test.

How can we help patients with dengue virus/anaemia?

Our rapid blood test services are not limited to heart conditions only. Rapid blood tests can be used on patients who are infected by the Dengue virus but well enough to be monitored at home.

We can use rapid blood tests to check haemoglobin, hematocrit, creatinine, and urea nitrogen levels. These are crucial factors for monitoring of patients infected with dengue.

For patients who has acute or chronic anaemia, our rapid blood tests would be able to provide you with results within minutes for ease of mind.

Why do we monitor patients with chronic lung disease?

We can also monitor blood oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH levels of chronic lung disease patients to ascertain if their blood carbon dioxide levels are too high or if pH is too low. Excess carbon dioxide, in your body's bloodstream, also known as hypercapnia, will cause headaches, dizziness and serious complications such as loss of consciousness or seizures.

Finding out the results rapidly allow us to determine if patients need to be sent to hospitals urgently or can still be treated at home. After all, most of us would prefer to be treated at home if we are stable enough, don’t you?

Why we need to monitor chronic kidney failure?

Patients with chronic kidney failure can also use our rapid blood test services to test for sodium, potassium, creatinine, urea levels. These levels can fluctuate in patients with kidney failure. We can act immediately to prevent these from becoming life threatening when these blood levels are too high or too low.

Some things are not worth waiting for and some things simply cannot wait. Check with us for our rapid blood tests services and we welcome walk-ins as well.