Evaluation of diagnostic accuracy using routine laboratory parameters

Early disease detection remains challenging in clinical practice, often leading to delayed diagnosis and poorer health outcomes. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of routine laboratory parameters for early disease detection among 486 adults attending a tertiary care hospital between January 2023 and December 2024. Standard laboratory investigations including complete blood count, metabolic panel, liver and kidney function tests and inflammatory markers were analyzed against confirmed diagnostic outcomes using sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and receiver operating characteristic analysis. Combined laboratory panels demonstrated significantly higher diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.847) than individual parameters, with inflammatory markers showing the highest sensitivity (82.4%) and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio providing the best sensitivity-specificity balance. Integration of multiple routine laboratory parameters may therefore offer a cost-effective and practical strategy for improving early disease detection in diverse healthcare settings.