According to Medscape, a growing number of patients who are ordering direct-to-consumer (DTC) lab tests without the recommendation or guidance of a doctor. They're offered online by labs ranging from well-established giants to smaller, potentially less vetted companies, although.

"Among the possible reasons people might order these tests are the delay in diagnosis that can often occur with a lot of rheumatologic conditions and that it can take a while to see a rheumatologist, depending on what part of the country you're in and what the availability is," said Timothy B. Niewold, MD, FACR, Vice Chair for Research in the HSS Department of Medicine. He's not surprised to see tests for Sjögren disease among the offerings, for example, because it's a condition that's difficult to diagnose but reasonably common within autoimmune diseases.

Read the full article at Medscape.com.