Has anyone been having problems with haemolysing ferritin/iron results and suggest any reasons or other companies please?

[Jo5454]

hi,

I’ve completed many fingerprick iron panels & individual ferritin tests before and never had any problems getting results.

Recently I’ve tried my usual two companies I use, had 5 attempts in total, the final one I took the blood just before 5pm, it arrived before 9am next day and still failed! I’m completing them as normal, but just wondering if anyone else has had difficulties please? The folate didn’t work either on them, which I know there can be issues with, but vit d, thyroid, cortisol, b12, magnesium all worked fine.

The companies have been very fair, I’m not complaining, but can anyone recommend anywhere they’ve had success with please?

Many thanks

[Nackapan]

Can you request blood tests ftom your Gp?I do. I think more reliable results

[Jo5454 in reply to Nackapan]

Thank you Nackapan,

Yes, I can request ferritin. Members on here have advised I do an iron panel though, which GP doesn’t do, so I’ve been doing them once a year or more if I need to check, after taking iron,

It checks for inflammation which can falsely put ferritin up. So I know if it’s potentially an accurate result. Plus it gives me an idea of whether it’s ok to take more iron. It’s just strange it’s been working for years, no probs, now suddenly not and with two different well known companies.

[rp2021]

Strange, my mother just done two tests for full iron panel and vitamin d and each test came back haemolysed. Followed instructions to the letter and all previous tests went through ok.

This was with Thriva, which testing company did you use?

[Jo5454 in reply to rp2021]

hi, thanks,sorry to hear that. Was your mum offered a retest? Mine were with Medichecks and Blue Horizon. They’ve been very fair, offered retests, refunds, but just seems strange.

I’ve completed tests at the end of the day just prior to posting and they’ve arrived before 9 the next morning, so can’t see how that can be done any quicker than that! Maybe we’ll find others have similar experiences?

The iron panel was such a handy test to be able to at home as the Drs don’t seem to offer it. I hope your Mum is able to get her results via somebody soon…

[rp2021]

Hi, my mum was given a retest but that haemolysed too. They offered her a refund minus £7 for the kit or pay £7 for a retest. Shes done several tests with thriva over the past two years and had no issues up till now. Im beginning to wonder if there's been a dodgy batch of vials included with their kits?

[Jo5454]

Did your Mum try a retest? Well, that is strange isn’t it, that they’ve all been able to be processed ok previously too…you could be right…

[FlipperTD]

Scientist, not medic.

Red cells have abundant folate inside them. If you get any degree of haemolysis then the red cell folate will cause an increase in the detected 'serum' folate. Fingerprick samples are notorious for haemolysis; it's just the way things are. If you don't get a copious blood flow from the fingerprick then haemolysis is almost certain to result. Squeezing the finger makes it worse. Equally, they're a nightmare for FBC results too. Anyone who can get a valid platelet count from a fingerprick sample deserves an extra biscuit with their tea.

Getting decent results from a slick venepuncture is difficult enough; fingerpricks are as good as the person taking the sample.

Sample quality is easily overlooked, and laboratories get blamed for poor or missing results, when in fact the 'GIGO' principle applies. Give the lab rubbish samples, get rubbish results back. Sorry.

[Jo5454]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to write such an informative reply.

I really appreciate what you’re saying and I understand that folate seems to be a more difficult, I know one company refunds that automatically and doesn’t attempt.

I’d just not had experience or heard of this happening with ferritin or iron panel before. After 5 attempts it just seemed strange it was happening every time and that other results were readable from the sample, but not ferritin? And never on previous pinpricks. I thought I was doing the same as previously, plenty of blood flowing, no squeezing, keeping time in transit to bare minimum…?

Would you say ferritin is particularly difficult to get a result from too then and myself and rp2021 just struck lucky on previous occasions?

I’m not blaming the labs, as you say, they can only work with what they’re given, but it only seems to have been more recently that the companies have been warning of difficulties in obtaining folate results, so was just wondering if this is to be the more common case with ferritin and iron now. The companies have both said it’s very rare?

Just disappointed as was an easy way to be able to check the need for iron, which Drs very rarely offer!

Thanks again.