Is there a universal test for all diseases in urology?
That’s a very interesting question, and I can answer it firmly: no, there is no single method that can give a patient a specific diagnosis. Patients often think that a CT — computed tomography — or an MRI will give them a complete diagnosis. No, that is not how it works.
In such cases an individual approach is needed, because every disease has its own specific examination. That is how it is in many cases.
For example, in neurogenic bladder dysfunction, no MRI, no CT and no ultrasound will establish the diagnosis. In such cases a urodynamic study is needed. Or, with an adrenal mass, a CT or an MRI can be done, while other methods may not give a result.
That’s why I say that in such cases an individual approach is needed. If, for example, the patient has blood — blood in the urine — then a broad range of examinations can be used: not only CT and MRI, but even cystoscopy.
That means a camera is passed into the bladder to look at what is inside. Is there a growth? Is there a stone?
Is there inflammation? What could the cause be? For all of this, no single universal examination method exists.
And I have to say, unfortunately, that patients go to doctors and go through every test there is — starting with blood sugar, whether it’s needed or not. They undergo laboratory tests, ultrasound and, on top of that, CT as well, in order to get a result.
Yet in those cases such extensive testing isn’t needed. That’s why I say that when a patient comes in, a competent doctor should use specific examination methods that match the complaints. Using these methods conscientiously, the patient must always be given a diagnosis, and treatment must then be given according to that diagnosis.
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