A UK survey of laboratory-based gastrointestinal investigations

A survey of hospital laboratory services has demonstrated marked deficiencies in the performance of gastrointestinal function tests. The repertoire of gastrointestinal investigations available varies widely between laboratories and, in general, analyses are performed infrequently. Most laboratories do not perform internal quality control, and inter-laboratory reproducibility of some analytes is very poor. A wide variety of protocols and reference ranges are in use, many of which are unevaluated. Some analytical methods and protocols in current use are outdated, with published improvements not being applied.