Answer to submitter. One cannot state that a PETH test is above the limit
Reply to ST physician Karl Forsberg’s submitter with the heading « We doctors are requesting PETH samples to protect other road users »which claims that the PETH test is very reliable, where he highlights the specificity, which is fully true.
But then the wrong one comes. He talks about a value of 0.30 micromol per liter. Please note that he writes with two applicable decimals. If you ask it in the area of national quality body equalis what it has for its quality mailing for analytical laboratories, the requirement of 20 percent is CV, which for a clinical chemist means that a response of 0.30 micromol per liter with a 95 percent probability is in the range 0.18–0.42 micromol per liter.
So uncertain is a PETH result. In high school you had to learn that you would not have more « applicable figures » than you can stand for in an answer.
When it comes to it Individual variation, Peth, which is formed in the body when alcohol consumption is broken down if you stop drinking alcohol. From the beginning, it was talked about being broken down quickly and the blood concentration was halved in four days. This has been modified to be between four and eleven days. This, together with the measurement uncertainty in the analysis, means that you cannot safely see if a patient has stopped drinking for 5–6 weeks.
PETH results are also affected, among other things, by the patient’s HB value, by BMI, by liver assets and by any HIV infection. My call to people who use the test will be to read scientific literature as the meta -analysis presented in the scientific journal « Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research » (June 2021).
It seems when reading various posts on this topic that many general practitioners are not aware of this and cannot be the patient law. This has created distrust of the test. Of course, as a doctor, you should discuss with and motivate the patient why you want to order the test before ordering it.
You should also Think about costs. This test is expensive as relatively advanced analysis equipment is required. Introducing it as a general screening test around people with high blood pressure would be very expensive.
I believe that Region Jönköping is a national example. There you take a few PETH samples, but instead prioritize a systematic dialogue about alcohol, drugs and even food and movement habits. It is cheaper than PETH tests and covers a larger part of health-promoting factors in the citizens for which the health care is for.
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