Post-menopausal women show increasing hCG levels with age, and this may be reflected in a positive urine pregnancy test. First of all, why is anyone doing a pregnancy test on a 64 yr old, unless she has been at an Italian fertility clinic? If malignancy is suspected, then surely there are more rigorous tests that could, and should, be employed.
Mrs. J. Still,
POCT Manager,
Biochemistry Dept,
Watford General Hospital. 01923-217998.
The views expressed in this message are personal and do not reflect West Herts NHS Hospitals Trust policy.
----- Original Message ----
From: Dr. Michael Steiner <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, 26 November, 2007 2:51:52 PM
Subject: Pregnancy test
Dear Lab Community,
Occasionally, we get urine samples with ß-hCG test requests from ladies
being by age unlikely to be pregnant (last case 64 ys).
Usually, it occurs by request errors. In selected cases, it may concern
hCG-producing malignancy.
Should we automatically refuse urine ß-hCG based pregnancy testing and
provide a comment ? What would be a reasonable age limit ?
Thank you for your input.
Mike
Michael Steiner
Institute of Clinical Chemistry & Laboratory Medicine
University of Rostock
D-18057 Rostock
GERMANY
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