Ordering K labs

 I'm calling my surgeon today to have a lab slip sent to me for my five year labs.    They've never ordered my K's for me.     I'm going to insist that they do, or write them in myself if they refuse.    Exactly what tests do I need to have them order?   Thanks!

When I got my labs beginning of June, I took a list I got off of here that had the CPT codes for different tests.  I did find, though, that several of them were wrong.  I corrected them on my slip, that's the one I had given to my family dr & he told me that he thought he had gotten everything I asked for from that list. . . and they were all correct, whether he went by name or code, I don't know.  That file is at home right now, otherwise I would post it - I no longer have internet at home :(

About K . . . I really did a lot of searching & could only find a CPT for K1 or even lab ranges for K1.  Maybe someone savier or more knowledgable can give you more info if they know that K2 or K3 tests exist.

Vitamin K, CPT code 84597 is the only one I am aware of.  I checked the Quest master lab list (http://questdiagnostics.com/hcp/qtim/testMenuSearch.do) and didn't see any separate labs for phylloquinone or menaquinone.

Per my advanced nutrition text book, serum vitamin K is shown to reflect recent intakes of the vitamin.  So maybe not the most reliable test for measuring stores.  I know you can measure K-dependent proteins and clotting times to do so as well.  Pretty common to do PT/PTT...but my books says it's not the most sensitive test because "plasma prothrombin concentrations typically must decrease considerably (sometimes 50% or more) prior to any effects on prothrombin time."

Osteocalcin is also K-dependent, but I bet that's already on the list.  And I think you actually have to measure the undercarboxylated amounts in order to glean anything useful about vitamin K, and I don't even know if that test is available.  Didn't see anything on quest about it at all.

Other K-dependent proteins are protein C and protein S but I know absofreakinglutely nothing about them or the interpretation of the tests relating to them.  I probably wouldn't have that done, but that's just me.

This is the source my book used for a lot of the assessment of vitamin K status, if you're interested: http://www.ajcn.org/content/65/3/779.short
Full text is available.

 That's right, osteocalcin is the k2 dependent one, and no, my surgeon doesn't check it - so I'll make sure they do!   THanks!

You should change the title of this post to say VITAMIN K, or someone might start giving you advice about potassium! 

Julie, see my post above. -Jenny