How long for lab results for blood tests?

December 10, 2013 12:51 PM

Specifically these tests: Anti-SM, Anti-dsDNA, and ANA. I've heard that it can take up to 4 weeks and I don't believe it and also I've bugged my doctor's office so much that I would rather ask the hivemind before calling them again. Grrrr this is driving me CRAZY. Blood was drawn on 12/3. When do you think I'll get the results? (you can assume that my doctor will contact me pretty much immediately upon getting the results herself)
posted by janey47 to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

There are a lot of variables here: where your doctor is located; what local lab is being used; whether or not the orders were written STAT, ASAP, or routine; and/or if they had to be sent to another lab for processing.

There is absolutely no way to answer this question without knowing those thing, and maybe not even then.
posted by jesourie at 1:12 PM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I have had all of those tests on multiple occasions and they can take up to a month. Factoring in the holiday breaks which will cause delays for non-emergency things and I would recommend you try to prepare yourself to not hear anything until January 6.

By all means, call once a week until then but I wouldn't get your hopes up or panic that they aren't available. Sorry, I know waiting is stressful!
posted by cessair at 1:37 PM on December 10, 2013

Seconding what jesourie said. There are just way too many variables to be able to tell you how long it will take. Based on the tests ordered, it does not sound like they were just routine tests... so even if the blood samples were themselves already processed, maybe the doctor would want to be fairly sure about the results before calling you, etc. (I don't know, this is just speculation....) It really sucks that the wait is so agonizing and I hope that everything turns out okay for you!
posted by gemutlichkeit at 1:38 PM on December 10, 2013

The ANA should not take that long but the other two are done by immunofluorescence or ELISA and these methods can take some time to finish. If the antibody is detected farther testing is done to confirm the results. Doctors offices tell patients tests take longer because sometimes they do really take that long.

Barbara Geiger MT, AMT
posted by bjgeiger at 8:28 PM on December 10, 2013

As someone who worked for years in a small hospital Laboratory, I can offer up my take: We only had space and equipment to handle the most needed tests, and maybe some of the special ones.

Twice a day we had someone come through and collect all the samples that needed to go out to California, or to Mayo, or to whoever had the machines and staff to run the specialty tests. Two weeks was the minimum standard for turnaround, with all kinds of reasons for further delay.
posted by MansRiot at 6:37 AM on December 11, 2013

Another factor is that tests are usually run in batches the lab may run some tests on a fixed schedule or when the machine is x% full. If you submitted your samples just after a batch was run, you will have to wait for the next batch.
posted by anaelith at 9:27 AM on December 15, 2013