Effective Wednesday, July 6, 2011, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics core clinical laboratory will begin running the Roche Diagnostics assay for human growth hormone. This assay will be available in Epic as "GROWTH HORMONE" [LAB525]. Correlation studies with the current mailout test to ARUP Laboratories showed tight correlation between the two methods. Therefore, there are no changes in reference ranges.

The specimen type is plasma separator tube (PST) – 5 mL whole blood from one light green tube (adults) or TWO light green top microtainers (pediatric patients). The test will be available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week (including holidays) with a turnaround time of 2 hours upon receipt in laboratory.

Questions should be directed to Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, medical director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).