Nowadays, people are paying more and more attention to health, and more and more people are willing to pay for themselves out of their own pockets and give themselves a comprehensive physical examination from head to toe every year. Therefore, all kinds of screening must be arranged.
But when we go to the physical examination center, there are many kinds of physical examination items, dazzling, to do all, as little as a few thousand, more than tens of thousands, is it really necessary?
In fact, some physical examination institutions recommend examination items, there is really no need to do all, the name is very intimidating, in fact, it costs unjust money!
1. A drop of blood detected dozens of cancers
"99.99% of the genetic testing accuracy, a drop of blood can detect dozens of cancers, can detect more than 1,000 genetic diseases ..."
This kind of "one drop of blood to detect dozens of cancers" examination has been packaged into a gene sequencing project of advanced detection technology by many medical institutions and physical examination centers. In 2014, it was jointly stopped by the former State Food and Drug Administration and the former National Health and Family Planning Commission, on the grounds that the gene sequencer used in China, as well as related reagents and software, had not obtained the national review and approval of medical devices, which was an "illegal medical" behavior.
Chen Yuhui, deputy chief physician of the Health Management Center of the former 95th Clinical Department of the 900 Hospital of the People's Liberation Army Joint Logistics Support Force, introduced that gene sequencing has been abused by many physical examination institutions, exaggerating its detection effect, and claiming that as long as a drop of blood can pass genetic screening to detect the risk of hundreds of diseases, the related examination costs range from hundreds of thousands to thousands of yuan.
In fact, gene sequencing is mainly aimed at genetic disease examination, and if genetic sequencing is added to the routine physical examination items, it is even more foolish. On the contrary, the abuse of such technologies by some unscrupulous institutions can easily lead to errors in genetic test results or make misdiagnoses to cause panic among patients.
2. "Pre-color" to check for prostate cancer
Many physical examinations have one of the abdominal ultrasound, and men over the age of forty often add an additional item called "pre-color" - prostate ultrasound in the physical examination, through the color ultrasound to screen whether there is prostate cancer. If this examination is added, the cost of the physical examination will rise sharply.
Zhang Guangyin, chief physician of the Department of Urology of Beijing Tongren Hospital, pointed out that prostate ultrasound is indeed often used to check the situation of prostate cancer, but for healthy people, the most important thing is to screen for early cancer, but color ultrasound can not find early prostate cancer, and even has no diagnostic effect!
Dr. Zhang Guangyin recommends that men over the age of 50 use the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) program to check for prostate cancer. Because PSA is cheaper, eliminating false positives is the most convenient and sensitive method for early screening for prostate cancer specificity.
3. Check lung cancer with X-rays
In most physical examination packages, the most direct means of checking lung cancer is X-ray, and even some medical examination centers will let you add a separate X-ray to screen for lung cancer.
Yang Yufei, chief physician of the Department of Oncology of Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, introduced that X-ray to detect lung cancer, due to its low resolution, the detection rate is relatively low, if you can use chest X-ray to diagnose lung cancer, the clinic is often already advanced, early screening is of little significance.
Dr. Yang Yufei suggested that due to the high resolution of CT detection of lung cancer, lung cancer tumors can be detected when they are 1 cm or even 0.8 cm. It is recommended that middle-aged and elderly people after the age of 50 or people with a family history of lung cancer should replace X-rays with low-dose CT during physical examinations.
4. Children's blood calcium test
Many physical examination centers will let parents add a "blood calcium test" to their children. Parents may think that if the blood calcium is normal, the child will not be deficient in calcium.
Qin Jiong, director of the Department of Pediatrics at Peking University People's Hospital, introduced that the instructions of blood calcium to calcium content in the body are not comprehensive. Because, in the early stage of calcium deficiency, the concentration of calcium in the serum is not enough, in order to prevent the occurrence of low calcium convulsions, the bones will contribute their own calcium to the blood, at this time the blood calcium concentration is normal, in fact, the bones in the child's body have been deficient in calcium.
Qin Jiong suggested that the child first see if there are obvious symptoms of calcium deficiency, such as sweating, excitement, and lack of sleep. Blood tests should be judged by reference to the values of blood calcium, phosphorus, and alkaline phosphatase, rather than just blood calcium, or by irradiating the wrist bone X-ray to see the age of the bone to determine whether calcium deficiency is determined.
5. CT and infrared cancer examination
Female physical examination, breast routine examination is necessary to do, but it is enough to do a breast B ultrasound or breast molybdenum scan, and many physical examination centers recommend "CT, infrared breast cancer examination" is really not necessary.
Wan Donggui, chief physician of the Department of Integrative Medicine and Western Medicine of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, pointed out that when CT is used for breast cancer detection, there is a disadvantage that the sensitivity is not high and the specificity of the breast is not strong. In addition, there are some places will use infrared to detect the breast condition, this is also very unpredicted, because infrared detection is not according to international standards, the performance of the machine is poor, the sensitivity is low, the error is large, and the doctor's subjective judgment is strong, and now the big hospitals have not used this method to do testing.
Wan Donggui reminded that for the early screening of breast cancer, it is first recommended to self-examination, B ultrasound, or judge by breast molybdenum target photos. Compared with breast CT, MRI is significantly better and is recommended in high-risk populations.
6. Laboratory indicators to check stomach cancer
"Do a stomach cancer test indicator test?" Many medical examination institutions will recommend you to do this project, but in fact, you can't find out at all.
Wu Yongdong, chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology of Beijing Friendship Hospital, said that laboratory test indicators are ok for the initial screening of gastric diseases, but if these indicators are used to screen for gastric cancer, it is inevitable that they are not enough, because they are not up to the requirements in accuracy.
Wu Yongdong recommends that gastroscopy is the most standard and accurate, and is the first choice for screening and diagnosing stomach cancer.
7. Screening for cancer with PET-CT
"A test sees lesions all over your body" is often the slogan of the physical examination agency when recommending PET-CT.
PET-CT can be said to be one of the world's most high-end medical imaging diagnostic devices, which is of great significance for cancer staging, identification of metastatic recurrence, tumor prognosis assessment and treatment plan guidance. However, its role in routine physical examination is not cost-effective and is not suitable as an ordinary physical examination item.
Zhu Xiaoli, chief physician of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Zhongda Hospital Affiliated to Southeast University, pointed out that for ordinary people, blind and excessive PET-CT physical examination is not necessary, although PET-CT is a sensitive method for detecting tumors, but the cost is higher, and chest x-ray is often difficult to sensitively find traces of smaller lung nodules. At present, the best screening method is low-dose spiral CT, although it cannot judge the benign and malignant tumors, it can be used as a screening method, and high-risk groups need annual physical examinations.
Source: Health Times