Common blood tests and panels, explained in plain language.
A routine blood test is usually a few panels: a complete blood count, a metabolic panel and often a lipid panel. Tap a panel to see what it measures, typical reference ranges and how the values read together. Looking for a single value? Browse the A–Z biomarker directory →
Iron Studies
No single iron number can be trusted on its own. Iron studies are ordered as a set because the pattern across four values tells a story that no one of them can.
Tumor Markers
Most tumor markers were built to follow a known cancer over time, not to find one. A single raised value in someone who feels well usually points somewhere harmless.
Autoimmune Panel
An autoimmune panel looks like a row of pass/fail antibodies but works as a cascade: an over-sensitive screen on top, disease-naming antibodies below it, and one pair that drops exactly when disease gets worse.
Vitamins and Nutrients
Nobody orders a vitamin panel because something broke. It gets ordered because something is vague: tiredness, hair shedding, low mood, tingling. Deficiencies that build over months are exactly the kind of cause that hides in plain sight.
Bone Health Panel
Four markers that split bone into the half being built and the half being torn down. They don't say how much bone you have, only how fast it's turning over, and they read out sooner than a scan.
Heavy Metals Panel
These three markers are toxins, not nutrients, so there is no healthy level to land in and lower is always better. And the blood draw mostly catches the last few days.
Allergy Panel
People order this panel to learn what they're allergic to. Neither marker can answer that: total IgE gauges overall allergic tendency, and tryptase tracks mast cells against the clock.
Cardiac Markers
The cardiac panel wears one name but runs on two clocks. Half of it is read in hours in the ER, where a single early draw can mislead; the other half measures strain and long-term risk over months.
Coagulation Panel
One form, two opposite questions: why blood clots too little and why it clots too much. Which screening time runs long is what tells you where the problem sits.
Thyroid Panel
A thyroid panel reads backwards: the most important number rises when the thyroid slows down. Read TSH and Free T4 as a pair and every pattern on the page falls into place.
Diabetes Panel
The same blood sugar measured over minutes, weeks, and months, sitting beside the insulin numbers that explain why it runs high. And the headline average quietly depends on how long your red blood cells live.
Hormone Panel
The name promises one test. What arrives is a handful of unrelated endocrine axes bundled under a single word, and most of the numbers stay meaningless until you read each one beside its partner.
Complete Blood Count (CBC)
The CBC looks like one test of your blood. It's closer to three separate reports, red cells, white cells, and platelets, and a handful of its lines just re-describe the same cells from different angles.
Inflammation Markers
Every marker on an inflammation panel climbs when something is inflamed, yet they are not interchangeable. They differ by how fast they move, what sets them off, and where they look. The most famous one is really two tests sharing a single name.
Kidney Function Panel
Creatinine, eGFR and BUN live on the metabolic panel and share two blind spots: they signal late, and muscle throws them off. This panel holds the second-line markers built to see kidney trouble sooner and read it straight.
Lipid Panel
The LDL value most people watch is usually an estimate, and it measures cholesterol weight rather than the number of particles. The panel's real signal lives in how the lines disagree.
Liver Function Panel
Most of a liver panel measures leakage and blocked flow, not how well the liver works. The signal lives in which group of enzymes moved together, not in any single number.
Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP)
Most metabolic panels arrive bundled into a routine checkup, and most of the lines come back normal. The real skill is reading which markers moved together, not reacting to any single flag.
What do common blood tests check?
Each panel is a group of tests ordered together because they describe the same part of your body. You'll usually see the panel names as headings on your report.
| Panel | What it checks | Markers you'll see |
|---|---|---|
| Complete blood count (CBC) | Red cells, white cells and platelets | Hemoglobin, hematocrit, WBC, platelets, MCV |
| Basic metabolic panel (BMP) | Blood sugar, calcium, electrolytes and kidney function | Glucose, calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, BUN, creatinine |
| Comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP) | Everything in the BMP plus liver and protein markers, 14 tests in all | Adds ALT, AST, ALP, bilirubin, albumin, total protein |
| Lipid panel | Fats in the blood linked to heart disease risk | Total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides |
| Diabetes panel | Blood sugar now and on average over the past two to three months | Glucose, HbA1c |
| Thyroid panel | How hard your brain is telling the thyroid to work, and its answer | TSH, sometimes free T4 |
Not every report has all of these. Got your results already? Here's how to read blood test results, step by step.
Questions about common blood tests
What does a routine blood test check for?
What are the most common blood tests?
What is the difference between a BMP and a CMP?
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