Lab sent out number of flawed Vitamin D test results

One of the country's largest medical laboratories returned questionable vitamin D blood test results to an unspecificed number of physicians and patients last year, according to the company, Quest Diagnostics, of Madison, N.J. Quest's laboratories are scattered throughout the country, and in June 2008, when physicians started calling to question some patients' test results, the company began investigating the issue, says Wael Salameh, an endocrinologist and medical director of the endocrine laboratory at Quest Diagnostics' Nichols Institute, in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Last year Quest and other major medical laboratories in the USA saw a leap in vitamin D test requests as more and more scientific studies reported that low levels of the vitamin may be linked to medical conditions including certain cancers, diabetes and immune system problems. Richard Reitz, a medical director with Quest said in a USA TODAY article published last fall that tests ordered for vitamin D grew by about 80% from May 2007 to May 2008.
Testing problems were linked to a small percentage of the company's labs, says Wendy Bost, a spokeswoman for Quest. The company is not making public the locations where the mistakes occurred or saying how many patients may have been affected. However, the pathology publication The Dark Report, who's current issue drew attention to the Quest case, suggests thousands of patients may have been impacted.
4 E) }- r& t# c4 m0 {1 s( JThe inaccurate tests typically gave readings that were too high — meaning some patients who need vitamin D supplementation might not have received it — but not in all cases, according to Salameh.
After the company wrapped up an investigation of the issue, Bost says physicians whose patients were believed to have been impacted were contacted by letter in October 2008. "We did a comprehensive investigation to identify patient results that might have been affected and contacted physicians who may have had one or more patients affected to give them an offer to conduct free retesting," Bost says. Quest included a toolkit with a letter doctors could use to notify patients.
Joan Lappe, professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, who has conducted research in vitamin D, says patients who might have been prescribed D unnecessarily are very unlikely to overdose on the supplement. "There's pretty strong evidence that you'd have to take 10,000 international units a day to run into any health problems," she says.
Symptoms of a vitamin D overdose may include confusion, muscle aching, "very vague symptoms," Lappe says.
& w% i' A4 L, XCurrent recommendations by the Institute of Medicine suggest 200 IUs of vitamin D a day for children and 400 IUs for adults, but some doctors are currently suggesting higher levels for their at risk patients — up to 1,000 IUs a day.
/ e0 c& p8 M) a1 ~: O' ]. ~4 d: q) zLappe says concerned patients who are taking the vitamin should see their physicians and get double-checked. "If you stop taking it for a couple days or weeks it's OK and probably not going to make that much of a difference for most people," Lappe says. Though she says kids should be evaluated more carefully.
Salameh says the company has not heard of any patient health issues related to the lab mistakes.
) G2 T. E  m* J1 L, Mhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-08-vitaminD-testrecall_N.htm

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