{"id":35,"date":"2016-08-30T17:08:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T17:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dellin.org\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2022-05-30T03:40:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T03:40:17","slug":"common-medical-tests","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/?page_id=35","title":{"rendered":"Useful Medical Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Know your tests<\/strong>: \u00a0In terms of medical tests for statin adverse effects there are four well known ones:
\nA blood test for CPK<\/strong> (a.k.a. creatine photokinase or CK). \u00a0This is an enzyme that your muscles release when they are being damaged. If you run a marathon it will be high. \u00a0But if you have normal daily activity it should be below 200.
\nAn MRI.<\/strong> \u00a0I’ve had several and found them not very useful. \u00a0They may rule out bulging discs. \u00a0In one case an MRI showed shoulder tendinitis (that I know I had).
\nAn EMG\u00a0<\/strong>(Electromyography). \u00a0This is usually combined with a NCS (Nerve Conduction Study). \u00a0You lie on a table while a Doctor sticks you with needle electrodes. \u00a0It is like that 8th grade biology lab where you jabbed frog legs with electrodes and the muscles twitched. Except now you are the frog. \u00a0The EMG test looks for nerve damage. \u00a0Since I had muscle damage my EMGs\u00a0were mostly normal. \u00a0Two\u00a0of the Doctors said that my muscles were “twitchy.” \u00a0For some folks statins cause neuropathy so the EMG may be useful. \u00a0For me it wasn’t very useful.
\nA Muscle Biopsy<\/strong>. \u00a0The “gold standard” test for muscle problems is the muscle biopsy.<\/strong> \u00a0They take a nice deep slice of muscle typically from your thigh. \u00a0It hurts for a few days. \u00a0In my case, it finally confirmed\u00a0statin induced myopathy.<\/em>
\n———
\nBeyond those four standard tests there are a few lesser known blood tests specific to statin adverse effects (not known by many physicians).
\nMyomarker<\/strong> series by RDL in California. This test is for markers of myositis, inflammation of muscles.\u00a0Here<\/a>
\nHMGCR antibody<\/strong> test also by RDL. \u00a0HMGCR is the chemical process that is inhibited by statins. Some people develop antibodies to that chemical process as it is inhibited. \u00a0Here<\/a>
\nNote that many hospitals can either send blood direct to RDL or they can employ the Mayo network to do so. \u00a0LabCorp and Quest do not handle these tests (as of my check). \u00a0You have to ask your hospital lab. \u00a0Often the labs don’t even know they can do these RDL tests unless you ask whether they do “send outs” to Mayo.<\/em>
\nSLCO1B1 gene<\/strong> test. \u00a0There are studies that point to people with this gene being more susceptible to statins adverse effects. Several labs do it, including Boston Heart Diagnostics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ahead to \u00a0Phil’s Biopsy<\/a>
\nback to my welcome page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Know your tests: \u00a0In terms of medical tests for statin adverse effects there are four well known ones: A blood test for CPK (a.k.a. creatine photokinase or CK). \u00a0This is an enzyme that your muscles release when they are being damaged. If you run a marathon it will be high. \u00a0But if you have normal … Continue reading Useful Medical Tests<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":7,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/359"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/statinvictim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}