Blood Tests

Blood testing kits used to detect active tuberculosis are unreliable and should be banned, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. The tuberculosis tests, widely used in developing countries, are dangerous because they both over-diagnose and miss true cases of the bacterial disease, the international group said in a news release. The WHO's position is based on a review of nearly 100 studies of the diagnostic tests for both tuberculosis of the lungs and of other organs.

Re "The testing glut," Opinion, May 2 Kudos to the medical specialty boards for recommending limits to unnecessary testing. A patient without symptoms who undergoes a routine exam will have at least 15 different blood tests done in addition to a number of radiological studies. These tests are usually negative, or they may be borderline and provoke further testing. Medical specialty boards are informing, but physicians must be receptive. Furthermore, patients should know that excessive testing is not good medicine.

The most problematic issue preventing a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao super-fight has been Mayweather's insistence that both submit to random, Olympic-style blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs. Mayweather doesn't want to budge from this position because, from his perspective, it's just an extension of the principles he's based his boxing career on: Stay out of harm's way, make a lot of money. The 34-year-old Mayweather (41-0, 25 knockouts) has long said there's no glory in taking punishment to the head in the boxing ring, and he's established a legacy as one of the greatest defensive fighters in the sport's history.

Even among psychiatric disorders, depression is a difficult disease to diagnose. Its causes remain a mystery, its symptoms can't be defined with precision, and treatments are spotty at best. But that may soon change. Scientists are looking for ways to identify patients with depression as reliably as they diagnose cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. A new study takes a significant, though preliminary, step in that direction by demonstrating that a simple blood test can distinguish between people who are depressed and those who are not. The test examined a panel of 28 biological markers that circulate in the bloodstream and found that 11 of them could predict the presence of depression at accuracy levels that ranged from medium to large.

Reporting from Latrobe, Pa. — Ryan Clark has some pointed words for the needle. The Pittsburgh Steelers safety and player representative to the union is disappointed the players decided to allow the NFL to test blood for human growth hormone, something they had resisted for years. "I think people wanted to get a deal done so badly that it was overlooked," Clark said. "In that sense, players kind of got screwed, for lack of a better word. " Like many players, Clark said he's all for the idea of catching cheaters and wants a level playing field.

The London Marathon sets itself apart today, and not just for its powerful field or the possibility of a world record. It will become the first major marathon to conduct blood tests on all elite entrants. "It's a wonderful thing," said long-distance star Haile Gebrselassie, who will run in his first marathon since he was 15. "That's what I wanted. That's really important--to find the honest athlete, the ones who do good training."

A Newport Beach police policy that forces many drunk-driving suspects to submit to blood tests against their will is under attack again in a federal courtroom. Less than a year after one jury found that the policy violates the rights of citizens, a second disgruntled motorist is asking for substantial damages in another case in federal court in Los Angeles.

Soon-to-be-married couples may receive free blood tests and physician follow-up evaluations when they donate blood at the Blood Donor Center of San Pedro Peninsula Hospital. The blood tests, which screen for syphilis and rubella, are required by the state. Appointments are necessary and may be made by calling the donor center at 514-5229. The center is on the second floor of the hospital, 1300 W. 7th St.

Question: I've been on Synthroid for almost 10 years. My dosage has gone from 0.1 mg to 0.175 mg. (Once I tried generic pills and those did not work.) I've gained about 40 pounds over these years, and I have trouble taking off the weight, even though most of the time the blood tests seem OK. My enthusiasm for exercise has also vanished, although I was a professional ballet and musical comedy dancer for quite a few years. Please send me any information you have on the thyroid. --S.G.

San Diego County Public Health Services will begin Monday to offer free blood tests to detect the virus believed to be the probable cause of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The test determines whether a person has been exposed to the HTLV-III virus, not whether a person has AIDS or will acquire it. Officials caution that the blood test is not 100% accurate. The blood tests will be conducted at two sites in the San Diego, at the J.B.

A prenatal blood test that can detect Down syndrome in a fetus in early pregnancy is now available to doctors in 20 U.S. cities, says the developer of the test, Sequenom Inc . The test is a milestone in prenatal testing because it's the first non-invasive way to detect trisomy 21, the most common cause of Down syndrome. Until now, women have had to undergo amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, both invasive tests, to detect Down syndrome. A more recent strategy was to combine ultrasound testing with blood tests, but that test required confirmation with amniocentesis or CVS. The blood test measures fetal DNA in the mother's bloodstream.

The most problematic issue preventing a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao super-fight has been Mayweather's insistence that both submit to random, Olympic-style blood tests for performance-enhancing drugs. Mayweather doesn't want to budge from this position because, from his perspective, it's just an extension of the principles he's based his boxing career on: Stay out of harm's way, make a lot of money. The 34-year-old Mayweather (41-0, 25 knockouts) has long said there's no glory in taking punishment to the head in the boxing ring, and he's established a legacy as one of the greatest defensive fighters in the sport's history.

A boy is a boy is probably a boy. That's according to a new study that finds that those noninvasive genetic tests used to determine whether a fetus is male or female are surprisingly accurate, as early as seven weeks of pregnancy. The paper, released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., described a meta-analysis of 57 studies representing 3,524 male births and 3,017 female births. The researchers found that tests that look for fragments of the baby's DNA in a sample of the mother's blood are about 95% to 99% accurate, depending on several factors. They can be used well before ultrasound (at 11 weeks)

Reporting from Latrobe, Pa. — Ryan Clark has some pointed words for the needle. The Pittsburgh Steelers safety and player representative to the union is disappointed the players decided to allow the NFL to test blood for human growth hormone, something they had resisted for years. "I think people wanted to get a deal done so badly that it was overlooked," Clark said. "In that sense, players kind of got screwed, for lack of a better word. " Like many players, Clark said he's all for the idea of catching cheaters and wants a level playing field.

Prostate cancer screening may become significantly better with the use of a urine test, according to a new study. Prostate cancer screening is currently based on a blood test to detect PSA -- prostate-specific antigen. But that test often produces false positives and leads to unnecessary biopsies. More than a million men in the U.S. undergo a prostate biopsy each year, and fewer than half of the patients actually have prostate cancer. The test is also thought to lead to over-treatment of prostate cancer.

Blood testing kits used to detect active tuberculosis are unreliable and should be banned, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. The tuberculosis tests, widely used in developing countries, are dangerous because they both over-diagnose and miss true cases of the bacterial disease, the international group said in a news release. The WHO's position is based on a review of nearly 100 studies of the diagnostic tests for both tuberculosis of the lungs and of other organs.

Nearly half of the fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Beverly Hills Unified School District were given blood tests last week in a pilot health program that teaches them how to take better care of their bodies. School officials told the Board of Education Tuesday night that the blood test, the most controversial element of the Neil Konheim "Know Your Body" Program, was conducted without any problems.

Blood tests given by Orange County health officials since May show that 131 people have been exposed to the AIDS virus, including nine female prostitutes, all drug users, who volunteered to take the tests while incarcerated in Orange County Jail. Health officials cautioned Thursday, however, that the tests prove only that the subjects developed antibodies to the disease, meaning they were exposed to the virus and not necessarily that they will develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

An 18-year study from the National Cancer Institute has found that widespread screening for ovarian cancer doesn't save lives but does set up many women for needless surgery and avoidable complications. The results, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., were not a complete surprise, said study co-author Dr. Christine Berg of the National Cancer Institute. Still, experts are disappointed that yet another attempt to catch cancer early has failed to help patients beat the disease.

Physicist Rosalyn S. Yalow, who shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of a medical diagnostic test that revolutionized patient care and led to a new understanding of diabetes and a host of other diseases, died May 30 in the Bronx, N.Y. She was 89. No cause of death was announced. Although her work in medical diagnostics was seminal, she was perhaps equally well known for her temerity in entering a field that had previously been dominated by men and for her persistence in pursuing her goals in the face of opposition from the establishment and the opposite sex. She was only the second woman to win the Nobel in medicine and only the sixth to win a Nobel in any science.