{"id":12906,"date":"2025-01-01T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/?page_id=12906"},"modified":"2025-01-20T08:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T08:33:16","slug":"understanding-test-results","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/art-in-pictures\/understanding-test-results","title":{"rendered":"Understanding test results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Our HIV health is monitored by results from blood tests<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This mainly uses the CD4 count and viral load. But it also includes CD4% (if there is an unexpected result) and CD4:CD8 ratio (when the CD4 count is above 500).<\/p>\n<p>ART is also routinely monitored by other blood tests. These include ALT\/AST (for liver enzymes), eGFR (for kidney function), cholesterol and triglycerides (for heart disease) and glucose levels (for diabetes).<\/p>\n<p>Other monitoring includes your height and weight (combined for BMI), heart rate, blood pressure, and asking about your mood, memory, sex life and general happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding results &#8211; especially from blood tests &#8211; will help people understand their health.<\/p>\n<p>Several principles are useful for understanding all test results.<\/p>\n<p>Your doctor should be able to give you a print out of your results.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lab results should come with a normal range. Anywhere within this range is good. Anything outside should mean the result needs to be checked.<\/li>\n<li>Most tests have a range of accuracy and variability. Interpreting results should allow for this fluctation. For example, both CD4 count and viral load can be 30% higher or lower and still be within the range for the test.<\/li>\n<li>Find out how often each test should be run and the time for checking an unexpected result.<\/li>\n<li>Keeping a record of results can make it easier to see if there is a pattern over time. For example, if kidney function or cholesterol are steadily improving or getting worse.<\/li>\n<li>Never make a change in treatment based on one result. Always have this confirmed with a second test. As well as fluctuation with results, sometimes other lab errors can occur, including mixing up samples.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our HIV health is monitored by results from blood tests. This mainly uses the CD4 count and viral load. But it also includes CD4% (if there is an unexpected result) and CD4:CD8 ratio (when the CD4 count is above 500). &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":12837,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-guides.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12906","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12906\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/guides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}