May 2025

Discoveries, trends, and discussions in medical diagnostics

Welcome to the May issue of Diagnostics Dialogue, where you can get up to speed on the most important discoveries, trends, and discussions in medical diagnostics. Continue reading to learn more.

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month  

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month  

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month  

May is Hepatitis Awareness Month  

Viral hepatitis is a major public health threat, and hundreds of thousands of people in the US don't know they are infected.1

Tens of thousands of new cases of viral hepatitis occur every year in the US2

May serves as a time to raise awareness about hepatitis while encouraging testing, vaccination, and timely treatment.

The CDC recommends:

Screening all adults age 18 and older for hepatitis B (HBV) at least once in their lifetime, and all pregnant women during each pregnancy, using a triple panel test3

Universal hepatitis C (HCV) screening for all adults age 18 and older and all pregnant women during each pregnancy4

Quest’s extensive hepatitis portfolio offers screening options for HBV and HCV in alignment with CDC guidance, as well as a comprehensive menu of testing to confirm active infection, guide treatment selection, and monitor therapy response.

Visit QuestDiagnostics.com/hepatitis for more information about testing for hepatitis A-E screening, diagnosis, and ongoing care.

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Better outcomes

Better outcomes

Stay ahead of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)—formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD—is the most common form of liver disease in the US, affecting up to 30% of adults.5
30%
Liver disease progression can lead to the development of fibrosis, cirrhosis, and other complications
The Comprehensive Metabolic Panel with Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) Index from Quest can help providers determine which patients may need additional assessment of liver disease.
Who should be screened?
The guideline-based Comprehensive Metabolic Panel with FIB-4 Index is recommended for adults with any of the following conditions6,7:
  • Obesity and/or features of metabolic syndrome
  • Insulin resistance, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes
  • Hepatic steatosis on any imaging study and/or persistently elevated plasma aminotransferase levels (over 6 months)
The easy-to-order, noninvasive FIB-4 Index yields a single score by combining

Patient age

Aspartate aminotransferase (AST)

Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)

Platelet count
Learn more about how we can prevent liver disease progression together.
Watch the webinar: Early identification of cardiometabolic disease

Better experiences

Better experiences

Understand the allergy/asthma connection

May is also National Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month, making it an ideal time to evaluate allergen-specific triggers for improved patient management and outcomes. Research shows that allergy is a risk factor for asthma,8 as exposure to allergens can increase asthma symptoms and trigger attacks.
>100M people in the US have asthma and/or allergies. Some people may have more than one of these conditions.(9)
The CDC recommends allergy testing for patients with asthma to help close gaps in care and mitigate risk for other respiratory illnesses.10
Watch the webinar: Interpretation of respiratory allergy results for patient management
Quest offers a comprehensive range of ImmunoCAP® IgE blood allergy tests to help identify your patients’ allergy triggers and support better asthma management and control for improved health outcomes and fewer office visits and hospitalizations for your patients.

Plus, we provide region-specific allergen insights and resources to help you quickly understand test results so you can provide the best patient care.

Help prevent long-term health complications with early celiac disease diagnosis

May is also Celiac Disease Awareness Month. While not an allergy, ruling out food allergies can be the first step in early diagnosis of celiac disease, which is key to preventing long-term health complications.

For individuals with celiac disease, testing is one of the first steps to diagnosis and ongoing treatment monitoring over time to detect associated conditions and nutritional deficiencies.
Quest offers comprehensive panels for celiac disease so you can provide patients with fast, reliable insights.

Removing traditional barriers to testing 

Removing traditional barriers to testing 

Removing traditional barriers to testing 

Evaluate novel psychoactive substances when providing drug testing services

Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are designed to mimic the effect of controlled substances and/or illicit drugs, are routinely chemically altered to enhance drug effects, and can evade tracking by law enforcement.12,13

NPS are often consumed unknowingly and found in combination with other substances, making it important to consider evaluating NPS when providing drug testing services.

We recently analyzed the results of our NPS panel, and the data highlighted alarming trends around xylazine, a rising threat in NPS.
Traditional testing may miss NPS
Quest offers comprehensive, definitive drug testing. The Drug Monitoring, NPS panel simultaneously identifies the 6 major NPS classes using definitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS)-based testing and reports out at the class level to help identify misuse.

Achieving the Quadruple Aim in your practice

Our purpose is to support you and your patients with leading services, patient experiences, and innovative testing that can help you provide clarity to the constant changes and challenges we’re seeing in healthcare today.

About Diagnostics Dialogue

In our conversations with providers across the country, we hear that you are facing many different constraints that make delivering care challenging. We’re here to help you navigate the uncertainty and deliver better health. With a broad test menu spanning 3,500+ tests and consultations from our medical staff of over 700 MDs and PhDs, we empower healthcare providers to create healthier communities, one patient at a time.
References
  1. CDC. About viral hepatitis awareness month. January 31, 2025. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis-awareness/about/index.html
  2. CDC. 2022 viral hepatitis surveillance report. September 30, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis-surveillance-2022/about/index.html
  3. CDC. Clinical testing and diagnosis for hepatitis B. January 31, 2025. Accessed April 28, 2025.  https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis-b/hcp/diagnosis-testing/index.html
  4. CDC. Clinical screening and diagnosis for hepatitis C. January 31, 2025. Accessed April 28, 2025.  https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis-c/hcp/diagnosis-testing/index.html
  5. Westfall E, Jeske R, Bader A. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: common questions and answers on diagnosis and management. Am Fam Physician. November 15, 2020. Accessed July 17, 2024. https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2020/1115/p603.html
  6. Cusi K, Isaacs S, Barb D, et al. American Association of Clinical Endocrinology Clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in primary care and endocrinology clinical settings: co-sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Endocr Pract. 2022;28(5):528-562. doi:10.1016/j.eprac.2022.03.010
  7. Rinella ME, Neuschwander-Tetri BA, Siddiqui MS, et al. AASLD practice guidance on the clinical assessment and management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology. 2023;77(5):1797-1835. doi:10.1097/HEP.0000000000000323
  8. Nelson HS, Allergen and irritant control: importance and implementation. Clin Cornerstone. 1998:1(2):57-68. doi:10.1016/s1098-3597(98)80006-9
  9. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://aafa.org/get-involved/asthma-and-allergy-awareness-month/
  10. CDC. Clinical guidance for asthma, other respiratory conditions, and/or mold allergy after a severe weather event. July 3, 2024. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/hcp/clinical-guidance/index.html
  11. Celiac Disease Foundation. What is celiac disease? Accessed October 12, 2024. https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/what-is-celiac-disease
  12. Peacock A, Bruno R, Gisev N, et al. New psychoactive substances: challenges for drug surveillance, control, and public health responses. Lancet. 2019;394(10209):1668-1684. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(19)32231-7
  13. Mohr ALA, Logan BK, Fogarty MF, et al. Reports of adverse events associated with use of novel psychoactive substances, 2017–2020: a review. J Anal Toxicol. 2022;46(6):e116-e185. doi:10.1093/jat/bkac023
  14. Quest Diagnostics NPS report, 2025.
  15. Kariisa M, O’Donnell J, Kumar S, et al. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl–involved overdose deaths with detected xylazine— US, January 2019–June 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:721–727. doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm7226a4
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