Lab & Imaging Services

Diagnosing the many and varied symptoms people can have requires medical expertise and experience with support from highly skilled laboratory and imaging staff. Amy Barudin, NP-C offers fast, convenient lab and imaging services to help them provide accurate diagnoses, screening, and treatment monitoring. These service forms are an essential part of the comprehensive primary care model. Call Barudin Wellness for additional information on the practice’s lab services, or book an in-person or telehealth appointment online today.

Schedule your labwork today at Quest Diagnostics.

What are lab services?

Lab services are tests that determine the causes of ill health and pain. The tests use substances such as blood, urine, stool, mucus, discharge fluids, and cell samples taken from your body.

Lab analysis detects specific bacteria, viruses, and fungi causing infections. It can also identify abnormal cells, issues like nutrient deficiencies, and markers for chronic diseases.

When are lab services used?

Lab services have three main uses:

Diagnosis

When you visit Barudin Wellness with acute symptoms, your provider takes samples for lab tests to find the problem’s source. For example, if you have a severe sore throat, they may use a cotton swab to collect a sample from your throat so that the lab can check for strep throat or tonsillitis.

Knowing what’s causing your symptoms ensures your provider prescribes the most effective treatment.

Screening

Health screening is a preventive medicine tool that detects serious diseases in their early stages. A typical example is the Pap smear, where your provider collects a cell sample from your cervix that the lab analyzes for signs of cervical cancer.

If you waited until the disease was causing symptoms, it could make treatment much more challenging and could even be too late — more than 4,000 women still die every year from cervical cancer. Screening also identifies problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes.

Treatment monitoring

After you begin treatment, lab services monitor your progress and identify any problems. Your provider can check your blood sugar levels after you start diabetes treatment or ensure your cholesterol is reducing sufficiently with lifestyle changes. They can make changes where needed to optimize your treatment. Monitoring is an essential feature of chronic disease management.

What do lab tests involve?

Blood analysis is the most common lab test. Sometimes, your provider just needs a finger prick sample, but they usually extract blood from an arm vein using a hypodermic (hollow) needle and syringe.

Other samples go into sealed containers. Labs have very high standards that ensure samples aren’t mixed up or contaminated. Results usually come back quickly, so you can get the most appropriate help without delay.

The Barudin Wellness team contacts you as soon as the results come in. If lab tests don’t identify the cause of your symptoms, you might have to undergo further diagnostic procedures. If the tests identify your condition’s cause, your provider discusses the treatment options.

Call Barudin Wellness or book an appointment online to benefit from prompt, accurate lab services today.