Basic Blood Analysis

Basic Blood Analysis

  • Overview
    Overview

    A basic blood analysis measures the sugar (glucose) level, electrolyte and fluid balance, as well as kidney function.

    • Glucose: Glucose is the sugar that the body uses for energy.
    • Electrolytes: Electrolytes helps to balance the body’s fluids.
    • Kidneys: The kidneys balances the water, salts, and minerals in the blood. Kidneys also filter out waste and other unneeded substances from the blood.

    It also helps the body to perform normally, including the heart rhythm, muscle contraction and brain function.

  • Benefits
    Benefits

    Blood tests have a myriad of benefits that reaches far beyond disease prevention.
    For example, by monitoring levels of sex hormones, you can take decisive steps to enhance your quality of life, perhaps by correcting a depressive mental state, erectile dysfunction, abdominal obesity, or by improving your memory and energy levels.

    The blood analysis tests that we perform at Constantiaberg Haematology include the following:
    •  Complete blood count
    •  Cellular morphology assessment
    •  You guessed it, here comes the third
    •  Flow cytometry
  • Flow cytometry
    Flow cytometry

    Flow cytometry tests the blood or the bone marrow, and identifies cells as they flow through an instrument called a flow cytometer. It also measures the number and percentage of cells in a blood sample and cell characteristics such as size, shape and the presence of biomarkers on the cell surface.

    Flow cytometry detects residual levels of disease after treatment. This helps to identify disease relapses and restart treatment as needed.

  • Testing and assessment
    Testing and assessment

    Regular blood testing is an important step for aging adults, as it can prevent life-threatening diseases. A blood analysis can help health practitioners and patients to catch the changes in the body before they manifest as heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, or worse. Undergoing blood analysis empowers patients to enact a disease-prevention program that could add decades of healthy life.

    Regular assessments of the morphology of cells is essential, as if confirms the health status of the cells, while also detecting any signs of contamination that may occur. Signs of deterioration may be caused by a variety of reasons, including contamination of the blood, senescence of the cell line, or the presence of toxic substances in the body, or they may simply imply that there is a need for lifestyle changes. Allowing the deterioration to progress too far will make it irreversible.