UPDATE...Vitamin D Testing

[Spiky Bugger]

I'm nine years post-op and if I'm confused, so are others. And, if we are dealing with new PCPs or some of "vitamin D is the latest fad" school of medicine, we need to KNOW what we want.

I know that, in the past, some of us have had to deal with lab orders for the wrong Vit D test. This time, I'll be using LabCorp, so I went online to compare the name of their test with the Quest name for the test. But at EACH lab, I could find only one Vit D test.

So how did we get the wrong test, if they each have only one?

I'll get the codes. If these are the ONLY Vit D test each lab has, they must be right, huh?


Quest:

Test Code
17306

CPT Code(s)
82306


LabCorp:

Test Number: 081950 CPT Code: 82306

 

[star0210]

LC has the regular Vitamin D 25 hydroxy which is the 081950 and then they have the Calcitriol - Vitamin D 1, 25 Dihydroxy which is test number 081091.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

LC has the regular Vitamin D 25 hydroxy which is the 081950 and then they have the Calcitriol - Vitamin D 1, 25 Dihydroxy which is test number 081091.

Well, now I can be confused again. It's okay...I'm comfortable in that situation.

 

[star0210]

The 081950 is the one you want to get your vitamin D level.

This is one of the most popular tests we sell. We don't sell very many of the other one.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

The 081950 is the one you want to get your vitamin D level.

This is one of the most popular tests we sell. We don't sell very many of the other one.

Thanks...I have had to fight for the test...I want to make sure I fight for the right one. (And Quest is no longer "in network" with my secondary insurance...so if I go to LC, it is ALMOST free.)

 

[revisionDS]

there are many "vit D" assays, for general vit d nutritional status you should be getting: VitD, 25 hydroxy
1. Vitamin D, 25 HYDROXY
2. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D if renal disease is suspected (some endos use this too to see how you are metabolizing your Vitd)
3. Fat Malabsorption Vit D Test Code 90393CPT Code 82306, it is exactly what it sounds like and great for those crazy drs who want to prescribe vitd2 for DS patients and don't understand fat malabsorption. take 50,000 d2 night before, test next am minimum 12 hrs later and voila below detectible range (I actually took 100,000IU of D2 and the endo was shocked I was absorbing nothing, welcome to fat malabsorption-great way to document it and shut them up in the process)

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Went to new doctor. She wrote the order for "Vit D 1, 25." Went to lab. SHE wrote the lab slip for "Vitamin D." Insisted it was the same. I insisted it was NOT the same and that if doctor wrote "Vitamin D 1, 25," it must have been for a reason. The she listed TWO vitamin D tests.

I am only paying for one and I'm getting grumpy.

 

[DianaCox]

Doubly grumpy, it appears.