A very informative article. Thank you for sharing. People don't normally pay attention to the things that surround them unless they become an obstacle. Unfortunately, by that time it is usually too late. The chemistry labs I've worked in take great precautions to prevent contamination and exposure to heavy metals. However, it's easy to get lax outside of a working environment.
Look forward to more of your articles in the future.
Thanks a lot. Quite true indeed.
Many people don't even realize that these toxins are present in some places they visit or items they consume and as such do not take proper measures to protect themselves.
Some of the medical procedures seemed quite intense. I'm just amazed you would have to go that far in order to confirm poisoning. Is there an order of difficulty to the procedures you listed?
Yes of course. You might not need to do all these investigations and procedures.
In some cases, you can even make a diagnosis from just taking history and doing some physical examinations. You might just need to do investigations like these to confirm your diagnosis.
Speaking about the order of difficulty, urinalysis is always the easiest to do. It is non-invasive and you require the patients urine.
Blood tests come up next. It is minimally invasive as you just need blood.
Liver function tests might need some time for the results to come back.
X-rays might not be necessary unless there was ingestion or injection and you want to confirm that.
Spinal tap I would say is the most invasive and is associated with more complications if it is not performed well. It is usually not done unless absolutely necessary.