Can someone please tell me what it would cost to have Pernicious Anemia tests done privately? I had NHS bloods sent off a while ago and my GP told me they were all negative. When I asked to see the results she was reluctant to show me. I got to see them eventually and most of them were listed as 'Test not completed', so they evidently had been rejected by the local lab. GP said this was because my total B12 was not low enough to justify doing them, but they weren't looking for active or inactive B12, just the total count. I can't afford a lot of expensive tests, so an idea of the cost of each would help enormously:
No point in doing the test for parietal cell antibodies. The result won't be helpful if positive, because too many people without PA, or low B12, test positive.
Medichecks will charge you £280 for their PA test bundle. It includes - a complete blood count (including MCV), ferritin, folate, active B12, MMA and IF antibodies. You'll probably have to pay extra to get the blood taken (they cannot do that lot with a finger-prick).
If you want them to do hCys as well then it'll cost you an extra £152 and you'll need to have the sample taken in their London clinic, because the test must be done within 30 minutes of sample collection.
I don't think MediChecks do serum gastrin. Spire do, at £175.
"Offering what we believe is the only finger-prick Homocysteine Test in the world"
One wonders why it is the only one.
I also wonder why it's out of stock.
The problem with tests for hCys in blood is that red blood cells continue to make it after the blood has been taken, and there is nowhere for it to go. So you will get an artificially high reading.
Out if interest what was the total b12 result ? . I'm amazed the lab refused to do other tests when requested by your doctor The only ones ive had refuse are the ones that can only be done every 3 months
The NHS in my experience will only fi total serum b12 blood tests. Usually done with folate level.
fbirder I've come across the same in clinical practice (as a patient):
* Positive anti-parietal cell antibodies, negative intrinsic factor antibodies, normal serum B12 (normal all metabolites but GP never ordered them anyway) --> ignored by GP.
* Positive anti-parietal cell antibodies, negative intrinsic factor antibodies, normal serum B12, normal all metabolites --> B12 shots for life prescribed by top blood cancer haematologist.
I find it sad that the current clinical guidance is driving a lot of patients to be left without treatment.
I've personally already come across over 15 individuals with elevated MCV (and all serum tests and metabolite tests (homocysteine/MMA) normal) who managed to lower their MCV with b12 shots. This is not documented in literature at all.
But you get this in literature often:
"Circulating gastric parietal cell (GPC) autoantibodies are detected in about 90% of patients with pernicious anaemia1 and considered as the end stage of type A chronic atrophic gastritis." source: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/193... --> i.e. low stomach acid impacting general nutrient absorption and impacted intrinsic factor production, thus lower B12 activation
and
"This study provides evidence that testing for gastric parietal cell antibodies is an appropriate screening test for pernicious anaemia, with intrinsic factor antibodies reserved for confirmatory testing or in patients with other autoantibodies that mask the GPC pattern; B12 levels are not related to autoantibody status." source: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/193...
So putting 1 + 1, I am of the opinion that the clinical guidelines should change and that new studies should be done
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Blood Test results - Please Advise...
B12 and Folate test results
Methylmalonic Acid Test
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Advice on Tests Please
