Origins of spurious organic acidurias

Testing for inborn errors of organic acid metabolism is increasing in impor tance as more disease are being identified with newer and more sensitive te chnologies. Although these metabolic diseases are rare, the consequences ar e life-threatening. The potential for extraneous factors to cause false fin dings and unnecessary replicate analyses is substantial. If health professi onals involved in testing these patients would submit complete information and became educated about the nonmetabolic factors that may cause these res ults, testing could be made more efficient.