I saw this in a free GP magazine yesterday. Not sure this is the ideal
way to learn about these things but by 1100 we had a hyperlink from our
laboratory handbook to these resources. But then Christos had been in a
meeting till 1015!
Jonathan
On Tuesday, October 8, 2002, at 05:06 , Dr S Walker wrote:
> I received a letter from the DoH on 30.09.02 stating that every GP in
> England had been sent a resource pack (on 23.09.02) to help them in
> counselling asymptomatic men requesting serum PSA testing. They also
> kindly supplied me with one of the resource packs. The info gives
> empirical serum PSA cut-offs for referral to urologists and these are
> lower than my current age-related referent ranges (particularly for the
> 70 and overs). I contacted our urologists, radiologists and
> histopathologists - none had been sent this info or knew about this
> government initiative. We are not aware of ANY extra funding to
> support the initiative either. Is anyone else? The ACB mailbase has
> had nothing on this. Is everyone aware of this?! I've been away on
> leave for some weeks so perhaps I missed all the debate? Is every
> english lab changing to the stated cut-offs immediately?
> These are:- age 50-59 PSA 3.0 ug/L or higher, age 60-69 PSA 4.0 or
> higher and age 70 or above PSA 5.1 or higher. I guess that if you are
> currently using a single cut-off of PSA 4.0, you and your colleagues
> will not see an increase (maybe even see a fall) but we will see
> potentially an increase of some 340 referrals/biopsies/follow ups
> p.a. My own workload wont' really be affected but joined up NHS
> and sharing of information would be nice! The letter also stated that
> by 31.03.03 laboratories will be using an assay with calibration
> traceable to the 1st IRP for PSA andhaving equimolar recognition of
> both free and complexed PSA. Interested to hear anyone else's views.
> Dr Sue Walker, Laboratory Medicine, Salisbury District Hospital, UK,
> SP2 8BJ
>
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