Vet Webinar „Putting Pathology Results into Perspective“

There are ever increasing numbers/proportions of samples that are being sent to external pathology laboratories requesting non-interpreted profiles. The generated results must then be interpreted (and acted upon) by the veterinary clinician and consequently, clinicians MUST have a thorough understanding of both how ‘abnormal’ results can occur, whilst simultaneously assessing the relevance of both normal and abnormal test results.

It is important to maintain a reasonable level of scepticism about any laboratory results that do not fit with the patient and clinical picture: Do not just believe all the numbers. Unexpected results are not uncommon and may necessitate clinical re-evaluation. Alternatively, unexpected results may be erroneous or misleading. Trends over several serial samples may be more informative than single results. Every test result needs to be evaluated carefully. Negative and positive predictive values should be considered for each result and clinical setting.