PSA & different labs

I know of scarcely anything so apt to impress the imagination as the wonderful form of cosmic order expressed by the law of frequency of error. The law would have been personified by the Greeks if they had known of it. It reigns with serenity and complete self-effacement amidst the wildest confusion. The larger the mob, the greater the apparent anarchy, the more perfect is its sway. It is the supreme law of unreason.

Add THIS to the mob, then reign with serenity.

Post Edited (NKinney) : 8/21/2017 11:12:07 AM (GMT-6)

I sent you an email. I would stay with LabCorp.

If a psa test determined that I needed more treatment.....only then would I get another lab involved. But....only for the last PSA test before treatment. Jumping from lab to lab before the determinate test......I can see it causing more trouble than it solves.

That's not something I'd want in my life......unless the future of treatment rested with the last test I'd had.

Jumping from lab to lab.....before that last test.....what if it came back higher? For me.....it would cause more confusion with no more clarity than I had before.

It's searching for trouble and confusion....where none exists...to get a good report....then go searching for a bad one....or another one.

What purpose does that serve? What good could come from it?

It's doctor shopping...seems to me...looking for someone to tell you you're sick when a doc has already said you're not. All the while having no reason to believe you're sick yourself....

I cant believe you'd even consider Quest after what they did to you.

I used two different labs when my old lab merged with Wake Forest and closed for a while. Until that merger I had used the same lab for at least 15 years. So for my last checkup I had sample sent to Wake and then went same morning to Lab Corp for another sample. Both came back the next day. Wake was .75; Lab Corp was .90. Medicare paid for both.

Since then Wake has converted the local lab I had used for so long to its methodology, but for comparison I will send one sample to the Wake lab I used last time and another to the converted lab. If they're close I'll start using just the converted lab in the future.

Wishing you good luck on your next PSA. I hope it's back to <.002.

My new Health Insurance policy has a special deal with Labcorp... All lab work will be covered 100% if sent to them.

Last week, my Dermatologist REFUSED to send a sample to them. He said he has seen nothing but bad test results from them... And since he's responsible he won't use them.

Since it's only potential Skin CANCER - what do I care

Wilderness-

My Uro tested <0.04 and then 0.08 in Jan 2017 and Aug 17
My large lab around the corner tested 0.08 and 0.16 ON THE SAME DAYS as above. This doubling concerned me.

They will probably bill me for the lab about $56 out of pocket.

I will continue to go to the same two places to get a trend. Nice to get a double-check.

Good luck with yours'.

Jim

Comparing results from two labs using different instruments is like comparing one variety of apple to another. They're very similar, but there are small differences. Check out the established detectable limit for each instrument to interpret the results from that instrument

Labs are reporting results using numbers for undetectable more nowadays than in the past.
For example, instead of undetectable, you'll see <0.03 as the result, as my lab does. This means that 0.03 it the lowest PSA value that can be detected by that instrument. They're doing this also for a test like a TB skin test, which is reported in mm of induration (Instead of negative, 0 mm induration is reported)

Values will vary slightly between tests, although usually not in the undetectable area, though you could see results of < 0.03 and 0.03 for consecutive tests of the same sample using the same instrument. This is normal and acceptable statistical variation.