If you have symptoms that could be caused by anthrax, your health professional will use a medical history and tests to find out whether you may have been exposed to anthrax spores. He or she will ask where you work and about other environmental exposures that may have put you at risk. Postal workers, for example, were at risk of exposure to spores in the 2001 bioterrorism attacks.

If your health professional is at all suspicious that you may have been exposed to anthrax, you will be treated with antibiotics until a diagnosis can be confirmed or ruled out.

Health professionals diagnose anthrax when Bacillus anthracis bacteria are identified from a culture and sensitivity test of the blood, spinal fluid, skin sores, or respiratory fluids. The Anthrax Quick ELISA test has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to identify the Bacillus anthracis bacteria. This test of the blood can be completed faster than previous tests for anthrax. Most doctors will not have the Anthrax Quick ELISA test in their office and will send blood samples to a laboratory to be tested.

Biopsy of a skin ulcer also may be done to diagnose cutaneous anthrax.

If results of a culture test are not clear, additional tests (such as a serology test or polymerase chain reaction [PCR] assay) may be done.

Nose swabs may help state and federal health departments determine how many people in an area have been recently exposed to anthrax. However, they are not used to diagnose anthrax or to assist a health professional in deciding how to treat it.

You may have imaging tests to look for signs of inhalational anthrax infection.

• A chest X-ray may reveal widening of the structures in the middle of the chest, and fluid (pleural effusion) between the thin tissues that separate the lungs from the chest wall.
• A computed tomography (CT) scan may show these changes and bleeding from lymph nodes in the chest.