Don’t ask for the measurement of pancreatic enzymes in people who have no suspicion of acute pancreatic disease and, in the case of suspected acute pancreatitis, don’t ask the associated measure of amylase and lipase.
Pancreatic lipase has diagnostics performances better than amylase, both as sensitivity and specificity and is the only test to request when suspecting acute pancreatitis.
Don’t ask for the determination of serum biomarkers like CEA, CA-125, HE4, CA-15.3, a-fetoprotein or CA-19.9 for the diagnosis of neoplastic disease in asymptomatic individuals.
The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of these biomarkers are not sufficient to allow their use in a population with a low prevalence of neoplastic diseases. Their use is recommended for the monitoring of the neoplasias that express the specific biomarker (Colon...
Don’t perform the determination of urine glucose for the monitoring of diabetes mellitus.
Urinary glucose measurement lacks the requested diagnostic sensitivity. The test of choice for monitoring diabetic patients is glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c).
Don’t ask for AST, LDH, total CK, CK-MB or myoglobin for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.
The only laboratory test that really contributes to the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction is the cardiac troponin (I or T). Especially with the more recent formulations at elevated analytical sensitivity this test presents characteristics of diagnostic...The campaign DOING MORE DOES NOT MEAN DOING BETTER – CHOOSING WISELY ITALY is promoted by Italy’s Slow Medicine
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