This article about hCG, was recently posted here:
[abcnews.go.comPRIMETIME 01Open ↗
0419_abbott_feature.html]
High hCG Levels, False Positives:
"Rufer is among the 10 percent of the population, whose
blood contains natural substances that can interfere with
lab tests, and cause results that are false positive."
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some quotes:
"I can't have kids," she says, "and I desperately want to
have a family." Compounding the physical and emotional pain
that haunts her every day, doctors have discovered Rufer
never had cancer at all.
Rufer has brought a lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories, one
of the world's largest diagnostic and pharmaceutical
companies, ... claiming that flawed results from their Axsym
BHCG pregnancy test led to unnecessary cancer treatments,
including chemotherapy and a hysterectomy.
High HCG Level
Three years ago, soon after Rufer was married, she went to
the doctor because of irregular bleeding. The doctor took a
blood sample for the Axsym BHCG routine pregnancy test, one
of the most common blood pregnancy tests in the country.
The test results came back positive, showing Rufer was
pregnant. But her doctor could find no baby. Additional
Axsym pregnancy tests came back positive for Rufer, and
still there was no indication of a pregancy.
When a woman is pregnant, she produces high levels of a
hormone called beta human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).
But if there is no baby, the elevated HCG levels can be a
sign of a rare form of cancer, called a "gestational
trophoblastic tumor".
If untreated, it can spread rapidly and kill. If treated
early with chemotherapy, it is highly curable. In fact,
early treatment is so important, that doctors sometimes
order chemotherapy, even if there is no evidence of a tumor.
Rufer was referred to a cancer specialist, at the University
of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, for more extensive
tests. Though scans showed no sign of a tumor, her HCG level
continued to be alarmingly high. Doctors diagnosed her with
cancer, and she began chemotherapy immediately.
Chemotherapy continued for four months, but Rufer's HCG
levels on the Abbott test remained between 250 and 350,
while a normal level is less than five.
She was told she would have to have a hysterectomy.
Tissue samples after her hysterectomy, showed no evidence
of cancer.
At first, her HCG levels dropped, but then went back up.
Then, doctors saw two suspicious spots on her lung scan, so
she had additional surgery. Doctors still found no cancer,
and yet her HCG levels remained elevated.
Then came a stunning relevation: "They ended up finding out
that I have never had cancer," says Rufer. "That this test
was faulty from the beginning, and that I had never had this
disease. I had been treated for no reason at all."
False Positives
Rufer is not the first, to have blood pregnancy test
results, indicate a false positive.
Laurence Cole, a Yale University researcher who published an
article about women who are misdiagnosed with cancer, based
on incorrect pregnancy tests, ... found that Rufer is among
the 10 percent of the population, whose blood contains
natural substances that can interfere with lab tests, and
cause results that are false positive.
No lab test is 100 percent perfect, and other companies that
make pregnancy tests measuring HCG, have also shown false
positives. But Cole, who has become an expert witness in
cases against Abbott, believes the company has a greater
problem. "We are still to this day, hearing about false
positive results in the Abbott Axsym test," he says.
Abbott's Response
In numerous statements to ABCNEWS, Abbott insists its test
is no more prone to false positives, than any other test on
the market.
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Susan, Su_Texas my opinions
