Talk:Medical test

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[edit] A test may examine treatments/drugs/other factors than disease

I have tried a couple of times to make the definition broader to cover more of the range of medical tests. Since the phrasing has evidently not been acceptable to other editors, please help in coming up with phrasing that is clearer or more acceptable. The last version of the lead sentence that I tried was:

A medical test is a kind of medical procedure performed to detect, diagnose, or evaluate disease, disease processes, susceptibility, or treatment.

The "or treatment" part is what keeps being removed. An example of the type of test that isn't covered by the current definition would be a measure of coagulation factors (e.g. Prothrombin time) used in monitoring Warfarin anticoagulation therapy. i.e. evaluation of a treatment so can adjust the dose. This is not a disease or disease process that is being evaluated. (There may be no disease present - e.g. anticoagulation may be as a preventative measure for those with a pacemaker.) There are lots of other examples where the test checks for presence or amount of a nutritional, therapeutic or other agent, which may not be part of a disease. Now, how to say that clearly and concisely? Zodon (talk) 09:54, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

The "or treatment" belongs, but it feels grammatically out of context when inserted in the sentence as such. It would work in a second sentence or two, though, where you explain about 'testing to determine dosage, ...nutritional, ...therapeutic, etc.' Maybe start with 'In addition, medical tests are used to... yada, yada'. Heh. It's hard sometimes to find the wording. --Rcej (talk) 09:34, 7 March 2008 (UTC)