Fecal Immunochemical Testing for Occult Blood (FIT) - Now Available at BC Biomedical Laboratories
Wednesday, 09 November 2011
A newer test (Fecal Immunochemical Test – FIT) for fecal occult blood (FOB) is now available from BC Biomedical Laboratories.
This test is based on the immunochemical detection of human globin while the standard biochemical test (guaiac test – gFOBT)detects peroxidase activity of hemoglobin and possibly other peroxidase-containing substances in stool. Human globin is normally digested in the small intestine so its presence in stool is more specific for blood originating in the lower gastrointestinal tract. The sensitivity for detecting clinically significant colorectal neoplasms is similar between these two methods, particularly if done on two or more separate patient samples, probably because some colorectal neoplasms bleed only intermittently. For this reason we recommend testing two samples collected successively rather than a single sample.
