Vit D Blood tests at Home
by Priya Nath Mehta
(nathji@yahoo.com)
Priya Nath Mehta ( Nathji) at Mussoorie, India
I ordered for a home blood test kit from Grassroots.com. They sent me a kit overseas with a paper strip on which two circles were printed. And the instructions asked me to drop a drop of blood on each of the circles so that it dropped and fell in an exactly circular shape.
I dropped the two drops on the two circles-- one of the drops gave a red circular shape on the paper, the other became distorted when I touched the drop to the paper twice. The lab wrote and told me that they would use only the one which came out round inside their printed circle. And I got the result of 103 ng/mL after 15 days.
There is another lab called the ZRT Lab , and they also send out a home kit. The paper strip that they send out has 12 circles which have to be filled by round drops of blood -- thus we need to squeeze out at least 12 drops one on each circle. ( I am sure this is no easy task!)
I wonder why this variation exists -- one of the lab asks you to fill only two circles with two blood drops, while the other lab asks you to fill 12 circles with 12 blood drops.
Do the two labs employ different methods of analyzing the results - one lab can get an accurate analysis from one drop on one circle and the other needs to analyse each of the 12 drops.
Which would be more accurate?
Is there any lab which you might especially recommend, which sends the Home Kit outside the US, apart from these two?
Many thanks in anticipation.
