The wonders of medicine
Because I'm diabetic, I have to do pretty regular (quarterly) blood tests at a lab, designed to catch any possible complications before they become, well, complications.
The past couple of times I did my bloodwork there has been a problem. Each time an unusually - and dangerously - high potassium level was registered. In each case they called me back for an emergency "validation" test, which, using a different protocol was aimed at making sure that the first test was not an error (mostly because nothing else came back abnormal, and at that high of a level, I was a candidate for an immediate and massive heart attack). In each case, the validation test came back completely normal.
Something was obviously wrong in the testing methodology, they just didn't know what.
Well, today I did my bloodwork again, and when the phlebotomist saw me she said, all smiling: "we've been waiting for you!" (yes, woohoo). They think they figured it out. I wanted to share this with you because the apparent solution is extremely weird, and might be useful for you if you happen to have the same issue with your lab.
Apparently, rolling your hand into a fist before blood is taken for the potassium test causes potassium levels to register as falsely high! OK, that sounds like voodoo science, but then I thought back to the previous two occassions, and something does check out; the phlebotomist who took my blood in the mornings, where the test came back high, always asked me to clench my fist and pump before she took the test. The one who did it in the afternoons (because the result came back so high they had to validate) never did - and the results from test taken by her were always normal.
Odd as it can be, but it looks like there's something to it after all. I'm terribly curious the see the results from this time around now.
The past couple of times I did my bloodwork there has been a problem. Each time an unusually - and dangerously - high potassium level was registered. In each case they called me back for an emergency "validation" test, which, using a different protocol was aimed at making sure that the first test was not an error (mostly because nothing else came back abnormal, and at that high of a level, I was a candidate for an immediate and massive heart attack). In each case, the validation test came back completely normal.
Something was obviously wrong in the testing methodology, they just didn't know what.
Well, today I did my bloodwork again, and when the phlebotomist saw me she said, all smiling: "we've been waiting for you!" (yes, woohoo). They think they figured it out. I wanted to share this with you because the apparent solution is extremely weird, and might be useful for you if you happen to have the same issue with your lab.
Apparently, rolling your hand into a fist before blood is taken for the potassium test causes potassium levels to register as falsely high! OK, that sounds like voodoo science, but then I thought back to the previous two occassions, and something does check out; the phlebotomist who took my blood in the mornings, where the test came back high, always asked me to clench my fist and pump before she took the test. The one who did it in the afternoons (because the result came back so high they had to validate) never did - and the results from test taken by her were always normal.
Odd as it can be, but it looks like there's something to it after all. I'm terribly curious the see the results from this time around now.
posted by Blinkered at 11:51 AM
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