MS Laboratory & Diagnostic Testing 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What does CBC stand for in medical documentation?
- Complete Blood Chemistry
- Complete Blood Count (Correct answer)
- Comprehensive Blood Culture
- Certified Blood Count
Correct answer: Complete Blood Count
CBC stands for Complete Blood Count, a routine panel that measures red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
Question 2: Which laboratory value is primarily used to assess kidney function?
- ALT
- TSH
- Creatinine (Correct answer)
- Bilirubin
Correct answer: Creatinine
Creatinine is a waste product filtered by the kidneys, and elevated levels indicate impaired renal function.
Question 3: In an Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) report, which value directly indicates the patient's blood acidity or alkalinity?
- PaO2
- pH (Correct answer)
- PaCO2
- HCO3
Correct answer: pH
The pH value in an ABG directly measures the acidity or alkalinity of arterial blood, with normal range 7.35–7.45.
Question 4: What is the normal range for fasting blood glucose in an adult?
- 40–60 mg/dL
- 70–99 mg/dL (Correct answer)
- 100–125 mg/dL
- 126–180 mg/dL
Correct answer: 70–99 mg/dL
Normal fasting blood glucose is 70–99 mg/dL; values of 100–125 indicate prediabetes, and 126+ on two occasions indicate diabetes.
Question 5: Which test is the standard for monitoring long-term blood sugar control in diabetic patients?
- Fasting glucose
- Random glucose
- HbA1c (Hemoglobin A1c) (Correct answer)
- Urine glucose dipstick
Correct answer: HbA1c (Hemoglobin A1c)
HbA1c reflects average blood glucose over the past 2–3 months by measuring glycated hemoglobin, making it the gold standard for long-term diabetes management.
Question 6: When a scribe documents 'STAT' for a lab order, what does this indicate?
- Standard time and testing protocol
- Send specimen to another facility
- Immediately/urgently needed (Correct answer)
- Schedule for tomorrow morning
Correct answer: Immediately/urgently needed
STAT derives from the Latin 'statim,' meaning immediately, and indicates the lab test is urgent and must be processed right away.
Question 7: Which liver function test (LFT) is most specific for hepatocellular (liver cell) damage?
- Total bilirubin
- Alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
- Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (Correct answer)
- Gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT)
Correct answer: Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
ALT is found primarily in liver cells and rises significantly when hepatocytes are injured, making it the most specific LFT for liver cell damage.
MS Laboratory & Diagnostic Testing 1
What does CBC stand for in medical documentation?