Testing for Alpha1
Alpha1 Awareness have received sponsorship from the pharmaceutical company Grifols/Talecris to distribute AlphaKits® to those members, associate members and their families who have not yet been tested. Initially the kits will be sent to people with a close family member who is known to be an Alpha.
There will be no charge for the kit or the test, either to the person or their GP. Full details will be given out on our Information Days. If you feel that you may benefit from this service please contact us.
The test procedure is as follows. Your doctor takes a blood sample either from an earlobe or a finger and applies it a special paper. Once this has dried it is placed in a protective envelope for the safe transit of blood products and posted to the testing laboratory. Also included are the doctor's and your details. The results of the analysis are posted back to your doctor who can explain them to you.
Depending on the workload the test results should be returned in 2 to 4 weeks.
The results are entirely confidential between the doctor and the patient - we will not be given the results.
The following documents are more technical and explain the tests performed at the laboratory.
Alpha1 Tests (pdf) (doc) or even more technical:
PCR Method using Lightcycler (pdf)
|