Quest Diagnostics Inc. of Madison, N.J., the nations’ largest lab company, provided erroneous test results of vitamin D levels to thousands of people in 2007 through mid-2008, the company revealed on Thursday.
Gary Samuels, the company’s vice president for communications, said “problems in a few of our laboratories led to erroneous results on some tests” that may have caused some patients to forgo vitamin D supplements that would have helped them.
Following the discovery, the company notified thousands of doctors in the fall who had ordered tests for their patients and offered free tests for patients whose results were deemed questionable.
“Last year, we did have an issue on a few of our labs that affected a small minority of tests in those labs. We identified the problem ourselves. We corrected the problem. We notified doctors and other customers and offered free retesting,” Samuels said.
How many patients were involved in this incident? The company did not give a number but the pathology publication The Dark Report, which in its current issue draws attention to the case, suggests thousands of patients may have been affected.
“We think that we went above industry standards to make sure that all the results [that] were incorrect are corrected. The magnitude of what we have done reflects our transparency and concern for the patients,” said Waeh Salameh, MD, FACS, medical director of the endocrinology lab at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Vitamin D tests have become popular in recent years, as scientists said there could be a link between vitamin D deficiency and a series of conditions such as cancers, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, birth defects, and osteoporosis. Therefore, people need to check their vitamin D levels periodically especially if they are over the age of 50.
What is the recommended level of vitamin D? People should have between 20 and 30 nanograms per millimeter, most doctors believe. To reach these levels, the Institute of Medicine recommends 200 units daily of the vitamin in children and adults up to age 50, and 400 to 600 units for older adults. However, these quantities are far below, according to some doctors who recommend supplements as well.
Joan Lappe, professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, said the error of the tests should normally pose no risks on people undergoing them. There were no incidents reported either in the case of people taking too much of the vitamin or in the case of people who stopped taking it for a couple of days because the tests showed their levels were too high. However, patients should ask their doctors if they need another test in order to be safe.
