A new study highlights the importance of blood sampling under supine fasting conditions rather than seated nonfasting conditions for the diagnosis of phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas using plasma concentrations of normetanephrine, metanephrine and methoxytyramine. Use of upper cut-off levels for these metabolites obtained from sampling under seated nonfasting conditions led to a 5.7-fold increase in false-positive results.
References
Därr, R. et al. Biochemical diagnosis of phaeochromocytoma using plasma free normetanephrine, metanephrine and methoxytyramine: importance of supine sampling under fasting conditions. Clin. Endocrinol. (Oxf.) 10.1111/cen.12327
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Biochemical diagnosis of phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas requires supine blood sampling. Nat Rev Endocrinol 9, 692 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.195
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2013.195