Differences between Trimethylaminuria urine testing at Arkansas CH and UC Denver

Arkansas Children's Hospital
is no longer performing the test for TMA, as per the
Supervisor, Clinical La/Metabolic Genetics, AKC
September 2013

Currently the only known Trimethylaminuria urine testing labs in the USA are :

Arkansas Children's Hospital, Metabolic Genetics Laboratory
University of Colorado Denver, Biochemical Genetics Lab

At this stage in the evolution of TMAU testing, there seems to be no agreed standard, and each testing lab sets their own testing procedures and reference range. This post attempts to clarify the differences between the 2 labs known to be TMAU testing in the USA.

The main differences seem to be :

Arkansas only tests for Trimethylamine levels, and is much cheaper (around $130)
Denver tests for trimethylamine and trimethylamine-oxide, but is dearer (around $250)

Since TMA-oxide is the final metabolized product of normal FMO3 function, it would seem best to test for TMA-oxide as well as a defining test. TMA-oxide gives you an idea of how well your FMO3 enzyme dealt with the TMA load, and therefore gives an indication as to the % function of the enzyme. It is not possible to get an idea if you have a genetically poor functioning FMO3 enzyme without testing TMA-oxide levels.

Apparently, The 2 labs also use different equipment for the TMAU urine test, although probably both are reliable.

Probably a best idea would be to use the Denver lab as a first choice, and perhaps use the Arkansas lab for monitoring TMA levels if price is a factor.

USA TMAU urine test labs	Arkansas Children's Hospital	University of Colorado, Denver
lab name	Metabolic Genetics Laboratory	Biochemical Genetics Laboratory
Official information	ACH TMAU test requisition form (PDF) Lab webpage	Lab webpage

References:
More contact details for TMAU testing labs