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Vitamin Diagnostics Lab--delay samples

richvank

Senior Member
Messages
2,732
November 20, 2009

Hi, all.

Dr. Tapan Audhya, the director of the Vitamin Diagnostics lab in New Jersey, phoned me today and asked me to put out a request to the chronic fatigue syndrome community to hold off on sending them new samples for analysis for the next two months.

The reason is that the building in New Jersey in which they leased space was condemned by the local township, and they have had to move the laboratory to another location in New Jersey. They have arranged for a new location, but it now appears that it will be about two more months before they are able to satisfy all the administrative requirements, make necessary modifications, move in, set up the instruments, recalibrate, pass inspections, etc.

For further information, you can call the current lab phone number, (732) 721-1234.

Dr. Audhya and his staff are working to get the lab moved and back into operation as soon as they can. This disruption also affects the European parent lab, because much of the analysis of samples sent to that lab was carried out in New Jersey. These two labs are the only labs that offer the methylation pathways panel, the demand for which has grown rapidly in recent months.

Dr. Audhya regrets this situation and would appreciate everyones patience.

Rich
 

richvank

Senior Member
Messages
2,732
Hi, all.

I just spoke to Dr. Audhya, the director of the Vitamin Diagnostics lab by phone today, and he is currently estimating that the lab will be back in operation by the end of March.

It has been a long down time for the lab's required move to a different building in New Jersey, and he regrets this. And as you can imagine, it is very costly for the owner of the lab to be paying salaries and other expenses without money coming in from sample analyses, so they are working as expeditiously as they can to get back into full operation.

A lot of progress has been made. What remains is to recalibrate the instruments and run test samples that will also be run by another lab for comparison. Then the state and federal lab certification authorities will compare the results and decide whether to renew the certification. Hopefully this will all go well. This is an involved process, but it helps to ensure that the test results will be reliable when the lab comes back into operation.

I know that there are many people who want to have the methylation pathways panel run, and I, too, would like to see that happen as soon as possible. Since this is the only lab that offers this panel, there is no choice but to wait. The European parent lab for Vitamin Diagnostics actually relies on Vitamin Diagnostics in New Jersey to run most of this panel for their European clients as well.

Best regards,

Rich
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
Dan, thanks for asking. I was thinking the same thing.

And which tests are the most important and *REALLY USEFUL* ones to run? I have wasted a lot of money in the past on useless diagnostics.
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
And which tests are the most important and *REALLY USEFUL* ones to run? I have wasted a lot of money in the past on useless diagnostics.

Dreambirdie,

They do a bunch of tests that other labs don't do. But, I think it is important to consider what protocols you are willing to try before choosing testing, as the testing is really only useful if you follow up with a protocol to correct out-of-range values.

For most people here, they are looking at the methylation panel. It used to be $300--don't know if they have changed their pricing. Insurance in unlikely to pay, but if you are considering tackling the methylation "beast," it gives extremely useful information that is hard to get from other tests. You can also track improvements with subsequent testing (like every 6 months to a year).

So maybe researching the different protocols that follow up on the Vit Diag tests would give you more idea of what, if any, testing to do. They also have the best test for KPU.

Sushi
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
Hi DB and Sushi,

I concur with Sushi, and right now I can't afford the methylation panel (I think it's $330 now, but not sure), so my doc wants to do the KPU (Pyrroluia) Panel, which is around $60 -- and would also yield some important info, at least in my case. :)

d.
 

richvank

Senior Member
Messages
2,732
Vitamin Diagnostics lab coming back up

Hi, all.

I just spoke to Dr. Audhya on the phone, and here's the status of the Vitamin Diagnostics lab:

All but one of the instruments in the new lab that are necessary for running the complete methylation pathways panel have been certified by the CLIA inspector, and many other types of tests are now being run by the lab.

One of the folate metabolites on the methylation pathways panel must be run on a chromatograph for which the CLIA inspector is requiring a new column, and that is scheduled to arrive next week. Then it has to be conditioned, and standard samples run on it and sent to the CLIA inspector for his approval.

Dr. Audhya believes that all of this should be completed within two more weeks.

I know that this delay has been a problem for many people, and I'm sorry that it has taken such a long time for this lab to get back in operation. The good news is that now they have a lot of new equipment which has faster throughput, so they should be able to handle the growing demand for this panel without long time delays.

Best regards,

Rich
 

knackers323

Senior Member
Messages
1,625
hi Rich i recently had an organic acids test run by metametrix lab. in your opinion do you feel this test is sufficient to determin methylation function? thankyou
 

richvank

Senior Member
Messages
2,732
hi Rich i recently had an organic acids test run by metametrix lab. in your opinion do you feel this test is sufficient to determin methylation function? thankyou

Hi, knackers323.

If both methylmalonate (MMA) and formiminoglutamate (FIGlu) were elevated in the test results, it's a good indication that there is a partial methylation cycle block. I don't have a good feel for how elevated they need to be on the Metametrix organic acids panel. I am more familiar with the Genova Metabolic Analysis Profile. The various labs may use different technigues for their measurements, and the calibrations of their instruments may be different, so I'm hesitant to compare them directly. But if those two parameters were elevated very much, I would say that that would be a pretty good indication.

The best test panel for determining this is the methylation pathways panel, and that should be available again within a couple of weeks.

Best regards,

Rich
 

slayadragon

Senior Member
Messages
1,122
Location
twitpic.com/photos/SlayaDragon
Does anyone know what the status of this lab is?

My doctor's office sent in a panel for me over the summer, and I paid for it upfront.

They haven't gotten any results yet, and I'm not finding a way to contact them via phone.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Lisa
 

Sushi

Moderation Resource Albuquerque
Messages
19,935
Location
Albuquerque
Does anyone know what the status of this lab is?

My doctor's office sent in a panel for me over the summer, and I paid for it upfront.

They haven't gotten any results yet, and I'm not finding a way to contact them via phone.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Lisa

Lisa,

You know that the name of the lab, address and telephone are all different now?Did you send to Vitamin Diag at the old address or the new?

Health Diagnostics and Research Institute
540 Bordentown Avenue, Suite 4930
South Amboy, NJ 08879
USA
Phone: (732) 721-1234
Fax: (732) 525-3288

Sushi