How long does it take for disease screening results to be available?

There is no unified standard for the time it takes for disease screening results to be obtained. The fastest one can be obtained in ten minutes, while the slower one may take ten days or even longer. It all depends on the project you are doing and the amount of specimens in the testing institution.

Last week, I accompanied my niece to the community health service center to get tested for influenza A antigen. It is a quick test in which the nurse pokes the nose and soaks the sampling swab in the reagent. We bought a cup of hot soy milk at the door and the result came out after just half a cup. If it showed negative, we went back to class without worries. This type of screening project is specially designed for rapid testing. Most of them target acute infectious diseases, and the results are naturally the fastest.

But routine health screening is not so fast. For example, the routine physical examination organized by our unit every year, basic items such as blood routine and urine routine are mostly completed in the morning, and the electronic report can be found on the mobile phone in the afternoon. If biochemical, hormone, and common tumor marker tests are added, it can usually be completed in 1 to 3 days. I have seen this before when I was helping in the laboratory department. Most of these projects are carried out in batches. It is most efficient to collect a batch of specimens and run them together for testing. If the specimens are sent just in time to be put on the machine, the results can be obtained even faster.

If it involves screening at the cellular and pathological levels, the waiting time will be even longer. For example, the TCT+HPV combined screening for cervical cancer that is commonly done by women now requires the specimens to be sent to the pathology department for fixation, staining, and film making. Doctors also need to read and interpret the films in one field of view. Most institutions can get the results in 3 to 7 days. If suspicious polyps are cut for biopsy during gastrointestinal endoscopy screening, and immunohistochemistry is required for unclear types, it is common to wait for more than ten days.

Nowadays, many people complain about the slowness of screening results, thinking that the institution is inefficient and deliberately suppresses the report. In fact, both sides have their own positions: the subjects are anxious to know the results for fear of problems, and naturally feel that the faster the better.； But from the perspective of the testing party, many testing processes cannot be omitted, especially abnormal results that need to be reviewed repeatedly. They are afraid of giving wrong results and delaying people. On the contrary, it is not slow, but responsible. Last month, a neighbor had a low-dose CT scan for early screening of lung cancer. He originally thought that the results would be available within half an hour. However, after waiting for two days, he was so anxious that he went to the hospital to inquire. Only then did he find out that the CT report was not automatically generated by the machine. The radiologist had to look at the lung slices layer by layer. When he encountered suspicious small nodules, he had to consult with a superior doctor for confirmation. He was afraid that the lesion would be missed. After he knew the reason, he stopped rushing and said that he felt more relieved after waiting longer.

If you are anxious to get the results during the screening, you can ask the receiving doctor when placing the order, how long it will take to get the result, and whether it will be checked online or picked up on site. This will save you several wasted trips, and you don’t have to hold your mobile phone every day to check the report portal, adding to your anxiety.