What test should I do to confirm narcolepsy?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am 17-year-old with height 5'8" and weight 260.14 Ibs. My doctor has clinically diagnosed me with narcolepsy. He said that I show every sign and symptom I did not meet the requirements on the MSLT. He believes that I still have it. He did blood work, and my iron and vitamin C came back low. He wants to do a spinal tap, if that comes back fine does that mean I do not have narcolepsy. Also, what does clinically diagnosed mean?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Most of the diagnosis is made based on the patient's history of complaints, examination done by the doctor and supported by investigations. The investigations most of the time play a crucial role for example if I suspect diabetes in a patient and his blood sugar test reports come normal, then my diagnosis needs to be changed. But for certain diseases, there are no tests which will confirm or refute the diagnosis.

Narcolepsy is one such disease. So what your doctor is doing is he is testing for other illnesses which mimic as narcolepsy. And if tests come normal, he concludes as narcolepsy based only on your symptoms and his examination and not on test reports. That is the meaning of clinically diagnosing. If you can tell me your symptoms, I can help you in diagnosis.