What is a Chloride Blood Test?

A chloride blood test, or a serum chloride test, is an easy laboratory test that measures the amount of chloride, a highly essential electrolyte, in your blood. Chloride maintains your body fluids balanced and allows your muscles, nerves, and cells to function.

The test for chloride in the blood is done to measure your overall electrolyte balance as a component of an electrolyte panel test and is typically done with tests for sodium, potassium, and bicarbonate. Physicians most commonly order the test to monitor your kidney function and chloride.

The test can be used to diagnose acid-base disease. Your healthy chloride can be used to detect conditions prior to them worsening. Good chloride test interpretation should be done to observe whether you are deficient in blood chloride or not, both of which lead to fatal complications if not done on time.

Why is the Chloride Blood Test done?

Your physician can have you take a test for chloride in your blood for a number of reasons. The most common chloride blood test is the monitoring of chronic illness such as heart failure, kidney disease, or hypertension. It will also be prescribed if you present with signs of dehydration or electrolyte disturbance, particularly in the form of vomiting, diarrhea, or excessive sweating.

Doctors monitor the chloride levels in blood from time to time to find out the reason why there are recurring chloride imbalance symptoms such as muscle weakness, confusion, or tachypnea. Besides this, an electrolyte panel test will track your other minerals to get a total idea about you.

Your doctor will also use this test as a follow-up to continued treatment and to determine if diet change or medication adjustment is decreasing any high chloride in blood or low blood chloride. Your doctor can diagnose early reasons of kidney disease for high chloride or early reasons of pulmonary disease for low chloride in blood based on your degree of chloride if you have been treated for lung disease or kidney disease.

How to Prepare for a Chloride Blood Test

Preparation for a chloride blood test is usually not much. In contrast to other tests, where fasting would be necessary, chloride blood test preparation is minimal, the majority are able to eat and drink normally beforehand before the blood test is done.

Aside from that, your physician can also advise you to discontinue the use of drugs such as diuretics or corticosteroids, which have the capability to alter your chloride blood levels. Be honest with your physician at all times regarding the drugs you are using so that they can advise you most appropriately.

Chloride Blood Test Procedure

Chlorine blood test is simple. The doctor will take a small blood sample, likely from a vein in your arm. Antiseptic will be wiped on the site where puncture will be done and a needle inserted to take out very little blood.

It will only take a few minutes to complete the whole process. Your sample will be analyzed in the laboratory once drawn. The lab will run your blood chloride level and other parts of the electrolyte panel test.

If, in addition, you require a serum chloride test for your kidney function test, the same venipuncture is performed. Your physician will receive a report from the laboratory about how the result of the chloride test is to be interpreted and whether your test result is within or outside the normal chloride range.


What to Expect After the Chloride Blood Test

There are hardly any serious side effects of having a blood chloride test in most scenarios. You might perhaps notice a bit of bruising or swelling at the site where the needle was inserted, but this will clear by tomorrow or the next day.

Your doctor will discuss your blood chloride test results with you. When high for blood chloride, your doctor will seek the etiology of elevated chloride like kidney disease, dehydration, or excessive ingestion of salty foods. When your body loses low blood chloride, they will search for the causes of low chloride like vomiting, diuretics, or metabolic alkalosis.

Understanding Chloride Blood Test Results

Your chloride blood test results will usually be a measurement in units of millimoles per liter (mmol/L). The normal range is usually 98 to 106 mmol/L but can vary slightly between laboratories.

If your level is greater in the typical range of chloride, you have elevated chloride in blood. It is due to overconsumption of salt, dehydration, or kidney disease, and also due to diseases such as Cushing's syndrome. Elevated chloride must be diagnosed at an early phase so that kidney stones or muscle weakness complications are avoided.

If your typical level is below chloride range, you have low chloride blood. Low chloride is due to vomiting, long-term respiratory disease, diuretics, or Addison's disease. Your balance will be corrected after the underlying condition is treated.

Conditions Detected by Chloride Blood Test

The role of chloride blood test is to identify imbalances which could lead to severe underlying conditions. The conditions detected by the test are:

  • Kidney failure or kidney dysfunction, which in most cases results in high chloride in blood owing to the lack of filtering.
  • Dehydration, which also results in high chloride in blood.
  • Chronic pulmonary disorders, i.e., COPD or emphysema, resulting in chronic acid-base derangement of the body.
  • Addison's disease, also responsible for decreased chloride in blood.
  • Vomiting of the stomach contents, diarrhea, or diuretics, which can lead to decreased chloride in blood.
Electrolyte panel is also done at the same time as serum chloride because physicians would prefer to see all the vital electrolyte levels simultaneously and be able to treat any reason for low chloride or high chloride.

Chloride Blood Test vs VSG

Physicians are able to prescribe a test of blood chloride vs VSG (ESR) simultaneously to establish some parameters of your health. Chloride blood test is taken in order to establish the content of chloride in your blood and as a component of an electrolyte panel test, and VSG (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) refers to the intensity of nonspecific inflammation.

Your physician can utilize VSG in order to screen for infection, inflammation, or immune reaction, whereas serum chloride test and associated tests ensure the confirmation of kidney and lung function. Both of them are referred to a more clear picture of your general well-being, as long as you possess chronic medical conditions.

Chloride Blood Test Cost in Pakistan

The chloride blood test cost is also inexpensive across Pakistan. A single serum chloride test costs between PKR 800 to PKR 1,500 in any diagnostics lab. If you are adding other tests, i.e., an electrolyte panel test, then it is PKR 1,500 to PKR 3,000.

Prices will differ slightly based on which lab you are going to use and if you need any home-collection services or not. Laboratories will give you package prices when you get more than one test done at once, and this can wind up being cheaper for you for a chloride blood test.

Book lab tests from the best-certified labs in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, and all major cities of Pakistan through InstaCare, and get a discount of up to 35%. For assistance, call our helpline at 03171777509 to find the right lab test for your health needs.