Intrinsic Factor blood test

[Chickens44]

How long does it take for NHS to run this test? I had the test done last Tuesday, but the results are still not showing on my records.

[topazrat]

Mine took around three weeks.

[Sleepybunny]

Hi,

Hope you get your results soon.

There are some other blood tests that may be helpful in diagnosis of PA besides IFA.

Thread about tests for PA and B12 deficiency

healthunlocked.com/pasoc/po...

[ClaireWF1346]

My result was just over two weeks.

[FlipperTD]

As you find sometimes, it's not always that simple. [Scientist, not medic.] I did these tests.

It all depends on where your sample gets tested. IFAb testing isn't a high throughput test, and dependent on the method used, it can vary quite a bit. It's not done in every lab.

In my lab, we ran very many B12 tests, for two northern cities in one lab. The analysers used were capable of running a wide panel of tests, but in my case, we ran Serum B12, Serum Folate, Red Cell Folate, Ferritin, Erythropoietin and IFAb tests every day. So, if it came in today, it went out today. We provided a referral service for other labs.

If they didn't run their own IFAb or Erythropoietin tests, they would send them to us, and when they arrived, they were processed the same day and sent back.

Any delays in receiving your results were down to transport and decisions from other labs of when to send samples to us.

If your Serum B12 comes back quickly but IFAb doesn't then it's probably being sent away to a referral lab.

Why don't the originating labs do their own testing? Well, all tests are subjected to rigorous Quality Assurance testing, and this adds to the running costs. Several QA samples would be run, each day the test was performed. If the lab is only generating maybe one or two patient tests, they would need to run more QA samples than patient samples, and thus increase the cost. If the method in use required batching, then waiting until they'd got enough for a full batch could take weeks. Sending them to my lab, where it would be turned round inside 24 hours was a sensible answer.

[ACritical in reply to FlipperTD]

Thanks for explaining how it works.

[Dancer57]

Mine took 2 weeks to get result.