Laboratory parameters 1st order
- 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 or punctates from the area for culture).
Laboratory parameters 2nd order
- Alkaline phosphatase isoenzymes (AP) – bone AP is elevated during periods of growth, fracture (bone fracture), 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 for suspected immunodeficiency (see immunodeficiency/laboratory diagnostics).
