Critical Steps for Flawless Adrenal Testing

David Liss, RVT, VTS, CVPM, program director at Platt College, discusses critical steps in achieving flawless adrenal testing.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“I think the first one is going to be ‘timing is so important.’ Whether you are a doing dexamethasone suppression tests or adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation tests, if you set your timers up, you give your pre-injections and you miss the timer, three or four hours later, those tests are invalid. You need to make sure that those timings are set up [and] that you are following that testing procedure to the letter.

[The second one] is to assign someone to that case. It is not a situation where you should take a patient, put them in a treatment room and just say, ‘Anybody want to help me with a dex suppression test?’ No. One person [should be] responsible. If the testing goes wrong, the owner has to bring back their pet another day to have it redone. [You should have] one person responsible, and not have them delegate it off to other people. [That person] is the one that comes back in an hour, draws the blood, and sends it out. It’s very important.

Both of those things will basically guarantee [that] you have flawless adrenal testing. [Of course] there are things with nuances with tests, but if you make sure that you know the test procedure and make sure that your timing is correct, and make sure that everything gets done and you are the one responsible for it, I think most things will go pretty well.”