Red Cell Folate Testing
Unwarranted and Overutilized in the Era of Folic Acid Supplementation
Modern Folate Deficiency is Rare
November 2010
Results from our laboratory and other studies suggest that American populations have indeed attained adequate concentrations of folate and that modern folate deficiency has essentially been eliminated. This graph shows results from Mayo Clinic patients (in Rochester, MN only) who had serum folate ordered over the last two years. Of the 24,177 serum folates performed, only one-half of a percent were less than 3.0 ng/mL, which is the deficient concentration as defined by NHANES and the CDC. Thus, a huge majority of samples are being tested that are normal; there are not many other routine laboratory tests that have this type of distribution, normally a more Gaussian distribution of results can be observed.
Modern Folate Deficiency is Rare |
Jump to section:
- Introduction
- Folate
- Folate
- Selected Food Sources of Folate and Folic Acid*
- Causes of Folate Deficiency
- Laboratory Diagnosis of Folate Deficiency
- Folate and Vitamin B12 Deficiency
- Quantitation of Folate: Methods
- Differences Between Folate Immunoassays
- Analytical Imprecision: RBC Folate (CAP Surveys)
- Equivalence of Serum and RBC Folate
- Modern Folate Deficiency is Rare
- Mayo RBC/Serum Folate Orders 1999-2009
- Conclusions
- Questions?
External
link
PDF
document
Excel
document
Word
document