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.