Half the biotin in a hair pill was enough to skew one heart test
Healthy volunteers took 10mg of biotin a day, about half what hair supplements commonly hold. Two of three troponin assays were untouched; on the newest, a missed diagnosis is possible.
What the study found
10mg of biotin a day was enough to interfere with a troponin test
Healthy volunteers took 10mg of biotin a day, about half what the US Food and Drug Administration says hair supplements commonly contain. Their plasma left two of the three troponin assays tested untouched. On the newest Roche one, a delayed or missed diagnosis of heart injury is possible.
The caveat · Nobody here was misdiagnosed
Nobody in this study was misdiagnosed; what was measured was the assay, not a patient outcome. Only three assays were tested, so it cannot say what any particular hospital runs. Whether interference of this size changes a decision depends on where a person's true troponin sits relative to the cut-off, which the design does not test.