What is a Uric Acid Blood Test?
Your body is in steady movement, all day, every day. Indeed, even as you rest, your blood streams, your mind fires away, and your gut processes that late-night nibble. At whatever point you eat something, your body hauls out the well done, for example, proteins and vitamins, and sends away the waste.
Regularly, one of those waste items is uric acid. It’s shaped when your body separates purines, which are found in a few sustenances, yet in addition show up when cells pass on and get dismantled. The greater part of the uric acid leaves your body when you pee, and some when you crap.
So on the off chance that you have abnormal amounts of uric acid, it tends to be an indication of malady, for example, gout. That is the point at which you may require a uric acid blood test, which estimates how much uric acid you have in your blood.
You may likewise hear this test called a serum uric acid test, serum urate, or UA.
For what reason Would I Need It?
Your specialist can utilize this test to enable find to out in the event that you have:
- Gout: This is a type of joint pain where precious stones from uric acid frame in your joints and cause extreme agony. You frequently feel it in your enormous toe, however can get it in your lower legs, feet, hands, knees, and wrists, too. It can likewise cause swelling, redness, and inconvenience in those joints, and may constrain your scope of movement.
- Kidney stones: These are close to nothing, hard masses – like little stones – that frame in your kidneys when you have excessively uric acid. They may cause extreme torment in your lower back that travels every which way, blood in your pee, hurling, steamed stomach, and an earnest need to pee.
- High uric acid level amid chemo or radiation: These medicines murder a considerable measure of cells in your body, which can raise the level of uric acid. The test is utilized to watch that your level doesn’t get too high.
You can likewise have a low level of uric acid, yet your specialist would commonly arrange different tests to investigate what’s causing that.
How Do I Get Ready for the Test?
Ordinarily, you don’t have to do anything unique. Sometimes, your specialist may let you know not to eat or drink anything for at least 4 hours before the test. Your specialist will likewise fill you in as to whether you have to quit taking any medications.
Make a point to inform your specialist regarding any medications, herbs, and enhancements you take, including over-the-counter, remedy, and unlawful medications. Any of these, including prescriptions that make you pee all the more frequently (diuretics), vitamin B-3, and ibuprofen, can influence your outcomes.
How’s the Test Done?
This test is an essential blood draw and takes only a couple of minutes. A lab tech will:
- Clean the skin where the needle goes in
- Fold an elastic lash over your upper arm – this makes strain to make your veins swell with blood
- Put a thin needle into a vein, ordinarily within your arm at your elbow or in the back of your hand
- Draw the blood
- Evacuate the elastic tie and put a wrap on your arm or hand
Are There Any Risks?
Ordinarily, you’ll feel a prick when the needle goes in. That is generally its most exceedingly bad, however since you’re having your blood drawn, there’s an extremely slight possibility of issues, for example,
- Draining or wounding
- Feeling bleary eyed or tipsy
- Contamination
What Does the Result Mean?
The test discloses to you how much uric acid is in your blood.
It quantifies the uric acid in milligrams (mg) and the blood in deciliters (dL), so you’ll see a number with units of mg/dL.
What’s a typical range fluctuates with various labs, so check with your specialist to enable you to comprehend your outcome. You generally get results in 1 to 2 days, however it relies upon your lab.
For the most part, your uric acid level is high when:
- For females, it’s more than 6 mg/dL
- For guys, it’s more than 7 mg/dL
Abnormal states could be an indication of numerous conditions, including gout, kidney illness, and malignancy. Be that as it may, it could be higher than ordinary since you eat sustenances with a great deal of purines. That incorporates dried beans or certain fish, for example, anchovies, mackerel, and sardines.
Ordinarily, your specialist will arrange different tests in the meantime to find what’s causing your indications. Your specialist will then enable you to comprehend what every one of your outcomes mean and what your following stages are.
What Other Tests Might I Need?
In light of your indications and what your specialist’s searching for, you may get:
- More tests for gout, including one where they take liquid from the joint with side effects
- Urinalysis, a pee test that searches for more indications of kidney stones, including blood, white platelets, and gems in your pee
In the event that you don’t appear to have gout or kidney stones, your specialist may arrange more blood or pee tests to investigate what else may trigger high uric acid levels