Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency has become a pandemic health problem with a consequent increase of requests for determining circulating levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]. However, the analytical performance of these immunoassays, including radioimmunoassay and ELISA, is highly variable, and even mass spectrometric methods, which nowadays serves as the gold standard for the quantitatively determination of 25(OH)D, do not necessarily produce comparable results, creating limitations for the definition of normal vitamin D status ranges. To solve this problem, great efforts have been made to promote standardization of laboratory assays, which is important to achieve comparable results across different methods and manufacturers. In this review, we performed a systematic analysis evaluating critically the advantages and limits of the current assays available for the measure of vitamin D status, i.e., circulating 25(OH)D and its metabolites, making suggestions that could be used in the clinical practice. Moreover, we also suggest the use of alternatives to blood test, including standardized surveys that may be of value in alerting health-care professionals about the vitamin D status of their patients.

中文翻译：

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维生素D测试：当前分析的优点和局限性。

维生素D的缺乏和不足已成为大流行性的健康问题，随之而来的是增加测定25-羟基维生素D [25（OH）D]循环水平的要求。但是，这些免疫测定法（包括放射免疫测定法和ELISA）的分析性能变化很大，甚至如今作为定量测定25（OH）D的金标准的质谱方法也不一定能产生可比的结果，限制正常维生素D状态范围的定义。为了解决这个问题，已经做出了很大的努力来促进实验室测定的标准化，这对于在不同方法和制造商之间获得可比的结果很重要。在这篇评论中 我们进行了系统分析，严格评估了可用于测量维生素D状况（即循环25（OH）D及其代谢物）的现有测定方法的优势和局限性，提出了可在临床实践中使用的建议。此外，我们还建议使用血液检验的替代方法，包括标准化调查，这可能对提醒医疗保健专业人员有关患者的维生素D状况很有用。