• Question: I have seen on your profile that you that you work with poo blood and wee.Why would you do that then anything else?

    Asked by dorart to Emma, Jimmy, Janet, Niall, Simon on 11 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by garrk003.
    • Photo: Emma Ashley

      Emma Ashley answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      I wanted a job where I could use my knowledge from uni, stay in a science-related environment and help patients at the same time (lots of my coursemates went onto work in the city eg. London bankers 🙁 )

      Measuring chemicals in these fluids are often the first test by the doctor because they are easy to collect and are non-invasive (that means you don’t have to do surgery or cause harm to the patient to get the sample).

      – We measure the lots of different of chemicals and molecules in your blood like sugar, sodium, potassium and proteins.
      – We use urine to measure chemicals that may break down quickly in your blood stream and are easier to measure in you wee eg. drugs. We also measure certain proteins in your urine to see how well your kidneys are working.
      – We measure certain proteins in your poo to see how well your gut is working and if there is any damage to it eg. blood in your poo, certain enzymes that may be higher in some bowel diseases

      In my training, I learnt all the techniques to measure these. However, now I mainly figure out what the results mean and then tell the doctor.

Comments