tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211371452778645597.post1255454370012266035..comments2023-07-15T04:39:59.759-07:00Comments on Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience: Personal genetic testing, available soon at your local pharmacySteven Salzberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16549957293973146438noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211371452778645597.post-77946994056250886972010-06-01T04:03:08.151-07:002010-06-01T04:03:08.151-07:00Whether or not to do genetic testing can be a comp...Whether or not to do genetic testing can be a complicated question. Sometimes it is very useful, sometimes not. Genetic testing may be useful for family planning. When parents have knowledge of their carrier status, they can take precautions to prevent a severe a genetic disease in the unborn child. This may lead to difficult moral and ethical questions when applied to the unborn child. In some cases gene testing is useful to confirm a diagnosis, such as alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency in the asthmatic patient, or to confirm hemochromatosis in the patient with elevated ferritin. Gene testing may be useful to predict future disease risk, such as cancer risk with BRCA genes, so that preventive measures can be taken. <br />In some cases, genetic testing is either redundant or simply not useful. For example, there is no reason to do genetic testing for type two diabetes when the fasting blood sugar is already abnormal and is a more useful marker. There is no reaosn to do genetic testing for famiial hypercholesterolemia when the routine lipid panel provides this information. Likewise, there is no reason to do genetic testing to determine eye color or hair color when a simple examination provides this obvious information. Very soon, the cost for routine whole human genome sequencing will become cheaper, and some day will be offered during routine clinical testing along with the CBC, blood count and chemistry panel. <br /><br />For More: http://jeffreydach.com/2008/05/05/understanding-online-genetic-testing-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx<br /><br />jeffrey dach mdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8211371452778645597.post-84349999297137175392010-05-16T19:38:24.422-07:002010-05-16T19:38:24.422-07:00I would like to know the error rate of the allele ...I would like to know the error rate of the allele calls though. And I want someone other than Pathway Genomics making the calculation.Rafahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11333613143914719754noreply@blogger.com