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Lab Tests Online UK has been designed to help you, the patient, to understand the many clinical laboratory tests that are used in diagnosis and treatment. The ‘about this site’ page describes what you can find in Lab Tests Online UK, and how it might benefit you.

You can search for conditions and diseases and find how laboratory tests can help in diagnosing and managing them. You can also search for tests directly.

Please let us know what you think of the site and how we could improve it.

If the result of a genetic test result could have a big effect on the life of the person tested, it should be sold to the public only with informed consent and with the provision of information about access to support from a doctor or genetic counsellor. These recommendations form part of a draft framework that has been drawn up by a working group of the UK government’s advisory body on developments in human genetics that includes experts in regulation, clinical and molecular genetics and representatives of the genetic testing industry. It is being circulated widely for consultation.

Two large studies of prostate cancer screening, one from the US and one from Europe, have given uncertain results. The problem is that screening and treatment may do more harm than good for men who have a slow-growing cancer. The studies provide no evidence to suggest that the current UK approach to screening should be changed at present.

In 2007, a new worldwide standard for HbA1c measurement was introduced and shortly the NHS will adopt this standard and change the way it reports this important lab test. The NHS now expects diabetics to have HbA1c measurements at least twice a year.