Do-it-yourself pregnancy tests: the tip of the iceberg

The author is concerned over the increasing use of clinical testing kits by untrained personnel who do not have sufficient background to detect malfunctions and who do not understand the complex nature of the reactions involved. Often these untrained persons try to modify the procedures to suit themselves with catastrophic results. Pregnancy kits are the most widely used and the most abused. The package inserts do not always emphasize strongly enough the need to adhere strictly to stated procedures. The reputations of both commercial manufacturers of such kits and the profession of medical laboratory technology will suffer unless legislation is introduced to limit the use of such potentially dangerous kits to those staff fully trained to use them.