Which At-Home Tests Work Best?
Find out which tests are must-haves and which you can do without.
June 24, 2008 — -- Drugstore shelves are cluttered with a variety of at-home medical test kits. You can determine whether you're pregnant, find out your blood pressure and cholesterol level with kits available at almost any pharmacy.
Most of these home testing kits are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but that doesn't mean they're necessarily useful tests for you. "Good Morning America" medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard gives you the skinny on five at-home tests and their pros and cons. Learn which ones are must-haves and which you can skip.
The recent deaths of journalist Tim Russert and comedian George Carlin have spotlighted heart disease, and the CRP -- C-reactive protein -- test can be used to check for inflammation in the blood that can trigger a heart attack.
It's actually a simple, inexpensive blood test. It comes back as either low, middle range or high risk. When it's abnormal, it doesn't mean it's a hundred percent sign of heart disease, but it's been highly linked to people and heart attacks.
So it's a marker for inflammation, and we now know that the most common and typical cause of inflammation is related to heart disease. For women, it has predicted the risk of future heart attacks.
Cost: $35 and up
As we get older, 30 to 40 percent of the population develops high blood pressure. It is the most treatable condition we have.
Untreated, it leads to heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease. High blood pressure was devastating before there were medications to control it. The majority of people with high pressure either don't know they have it or they write it off, saying they were nervous in the doctor's office when he was taking their blood pressure.
Home blood pressure monitoring has been shown to ensure that people who have high blood pressure get the right treatment and get their blood pressure under control. You can't rely on the doctor taking your blood pressure once or twice a year. The kit starts at $35 and is simple to use. All you do is strap a cuff on your arm.
