Mark Your Calendar
17th Annual Symposium on Current Concepts in Spinal Disorders
Feb. 8—Feb. 10
The 23rd Annual Multidisciplinary Symposium on Breast Disease
Feb. 15—Feb. 18
Reversing Heart Disease
Feb. 27
Surgery Grand Rounds
See information about upcoming Surgery Grand Rounds.
Grand Rounds
Education Schedule
Surgery Scheduling
In This Issue:
- Surgery Research at Cedars-Sinai
- Streamlining Without Cookie Cutters
- Gender-Affirming Phalloplasty: A First for Cedars-Sinai
- Executives Begin New Duties in January
- Breast Cancer Center Renovation Project to Begin
- Stop the Bleed Class Teaches Lifesaving Skills
- Physician Is Hip to the Ways of Saber-Toothed Cats
- Drug-Free Workplace Rules Unaltered by Marijuana Law
- State-Mandated Workplace Violence Training to Begin
- New Cancer Gene Sequencing Panels
- FDA Issues New Safety Measures for Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents
- FDA Requires Safety Label Change for Prescription Cough and Cold Medicines
- Core Labs Updating Test Methods
- Biotin Interference with Immunoassays Can Alter Results
- Circle of Friends Honorees for December
- CS-Link Tip: A Helpful Shortcut
Biotin Interference with Immunoassays Can Alter Results
Recent articles have highlighted the potential for biotin interference with clinical immunoassays. Biotin is a supplement that has grown in popularity in recent years as a health aid, particularly for hair and nail growth. Some patients are taking biotin in "mega" doses of 10,000 mg/day or more.
This trend becomes an issue with clinical immunoassays that take advantage of biotin-streptavidin binding to "capture" antibodies as part of their methodologies. Patients who have recently taken biotin can exhibit false low or high results to a host of common tests, including thyroid tests, hormones, cardiac markers and others. (Roche and Siemens immunoassays, in particular, frequently utilize biotin-streptavidin linking.)
The Core laboratories in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, for the most part, do not use immunoassays that suffer from this potential interference (Roche assays are being discontinued). However, not all Cedars-Sinai patients have their samples run in our labs. As such, clinicians should be aware of the potential for biotin interference with immunoassays.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that the available data is insufficient to support recommendations for safe testing using affected assays in patients taking high levels of biotin, including the length of time for adequate biotin clearance from the blood.
An article from Endocrine Practice discusses the issue in more detail.
If you have questions, contact Kimia Sobhani, PhD, at kimia.sobhani@cshs.org.