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By Jo Adaway
Consultant Clinical Scientist
September 2025
In 2024, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust analysed more than 100,000 vitamin D samples using mass spectrometry, 62,000 of which were from primary care. This number has increased over the years without an increase in staff and instrument capacity, which means that it can take us over 14 days to report a vitamin D result. This is not ideal for patient care, so we have decided to run primary care samples for vitamin D on our automated immunoassay analyser. This will enable us to report results much faster, often on the day of the request. You will notice some differences in the way that results are reported – currently we report 25(OH) vitamin D2, 25(OH) vitamin D3 and the total vitamin D, the automated assay only gives us the total vitamin D result. Interpretation of the results is based on the total vitamin D however, and this will not change. There will be no change to how you request vitamin D analysis.
We have carried out a full comparison of results on the current and new assays, and have noted that there are some differences around the treatment cut-off of 25 nmol/L. To ensure that all patients get the correct interpretation and treatment, we will analyse all samples with results of 20-30 nmol/L using the gold standard method of mass spectrometry, these results will take slightly longer to report and will look the same as the current results, with the vitamin D2, D3 and total vitamin D reported separately. We feel that using this approach we will provide the best care for all patients, with the results being available much quicker than we can currently achieve.
We are currently making the necessary changes to our IT system and don’t yet have a date when we will move to the new method. We will send out a memo to all GP practices once we have a date available. If you have any questions about the change, please email jo.adaway@mft.nhs.uk