Laboratory parameters of the 1st order – obligatory laboratory tests.
- Small blood count
- Inflammatory parameters – CRP (C-reactive protein).
- Biopsies/tissue samples (histology) – Histologic (fine tissue) examination of bone samples does not provide a definitive diagnosis of osteomyelitis, but it does provide information on possible differential diagnoses, such as malignancies (cancer) complicated by infection.
- Microbiology (smears, punctates from the area for culture.
Laboratory parameters 2nd order – depending on the results of the history, physical examination and mandatory laboratory parameters – for differential diagnostic clarification.
- Alkaline phosphatase (AP) isoenzymes – bone AP is elevated in growth phases, fracture (broken bone), hyperparathyroidism (parathyroid hyperfunction), bone metastases, M. Paget’s disease (osteodystrophia deformans, a disease of the skeletal system), plasmocytoma (multiple myeloma; malignant disease with proliferation of antibody-producing cells), osteomyelitis, osteomalacia (softening of the bones), osteosarcoma (malignant bone tumor), rickets
- Laboratory parameters due tosuspected immunodeficiency (see this under immunodeficiency / laboratory diagnostics).