Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Laboratory Tests
Laboratory tests check a sample of your blood, urine, or body tissues. A technician or your doctor analyzes the test samples to see if your results fall within the normal range. The tests use a range because what is normal differs from person to person. Many factors affect test results. These include:
- Your sex, age and race
- What you eat and drink
- Medicines you take
- How well you followed pre-test instructions
Your doctor may also compare your results to results from previous tests. Laboratory tests are often part of a routine checkup to look for changes in your health. They also help doctors diagnose medical conditions, plan or evaluate treatments, and monitor diseases.
It sits within Diagnostic Tests.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Laboratory Tests
1,715 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Hormone Therapy With or Without Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Women Who Have Undergone Surgery for Node-Negative Breast Cancer (The TAILORx Trial)National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- PROstate Cancer Risk Calculator for ACTionable Clinical Decision-making in NigeriaAhmadu Bello University
- Evaluation of Levothyroxine Replacement Therapy After Total Thyroidectomy Using a Smart WristbandYeditepe University Hospital
- Testing a New Gold Nanoparticle-Based Lithium Delivery Method for Bipolar Disorder in Laboratory ModelsFondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS
- Laboratory Evaluation of Pregnancy Malaria Vaccine Candidates/In-vitro Testing of Pregnancy Malaria Vaccine CandidatesNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- Effect of Box Breathing Exercise on Anxiety, Pain, and Pulmonary Function Tests in Patients Undergoing ColonoscopyTarsus University
Research already completed
- Optimizing Noisy Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation Frequency Range for Enhancing Vestibular Perception and Manual Control PerformanceNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- Study of Accuracy of Placement and Performance Test in Detecting Supraglottic Airway Placement Compared to Fiberoptic View. Recruited Patients in University Malaya Medical Center, Malaysia, Undergoing General Anesthesia With Supraglottic Airway.University of Malaya
- Diagnosis of Sleep-Related Respiratory Disorders in Patients With Narcotic MedicationsKaiser Permanente
- SCREaning of Advanced Liver Fibrosis Using Non-Invasive Tests in General PopulationUniversity Hospital, Angers
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- How Cancer Is DiagnosedNational Cancer Institute
- How to Prepare for a Lab TestNational Library of Medicine
- How to Understand Your Lab ResultsNational Library of Medicine
- Lab Test InformationNational Library of Medicine
- Tests Used in Clinical CareFood and Drug Administration
Statistics and Research
- New Thinking on Important Blood TestsHarvard Medical School
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Hematologic TestsNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: UrinalysisNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Clinical Laboratory Techniques. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Laboratory Tests, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.