Properly Collected Plasma Metanephrines Excludes PPGL After False-Positive Screening Tests.

CONTEXT: False-positive results are common for pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PPGL) real-world screening.

OBJECTIVE

Determine the correlation between screening urine and seated plasma metanephrines in outpatients where PPGL was absent, compared to meticulously prepared and supine-collected plasma metanephrines with age-adjusted references.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

Databases from a single-provider provincial laboratory (2012-2018), a validated PPGL registry, and a manual chart review from a specialized endocrine testing unit.

PATIENTS: PPGL registry data excluded known PPGL cases from the laboratory database. Outpatients having both urine and plasma metanephrines <90 days apart.

METHODS

The correlation between urine and seated plasma measures along with the total positivity rate. All cases of plasma metanephrines drawn in the endocrine unit were reviewed for test indication and test positivity rate.

RESULTS

There were 810 non-PPGL pairs of urine and plasma metanephrines in the laboratory database; 46.1% of urine metanephrines were reported high. Of seated outpatient plasma metanephrines drawn a median of 5.9 days later, 19.2% were also high (r = 0.33 and 0.50 for normetanephrine and metanephrine, respectively). In contrast, the meticulously prepared and supine collected patients (n = 139, 51% prior high urine metanephrines) had <3% rate of abnormal high results in patients without known PPGL/adrenal mass.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a poor-to-moderate correlation between urine and seated plasma metanephrines. Up to 20% of those with high urine measures also had high seated plasma metanephrines in the absence of PPGL. Properly prepared and collected supine plasma metanephrines had a false-positive rate of <3% in the absence of known PPGL/adrenal mass.