Pharmacogenetic Results

DNA holds your genetic code. It lives in every one of your body’s cells. Human DNA sequences are more than 99% alike between people. Still, there are specific areas in our DNA that are known to differ between people. This means that each person has small differences in their genes.

 

Differences in your DNA can change how well your body breaks down or carries certain medicines to the right place. This is called pharmacogenetics (say FAR-mah-coh-je-NEH-tiks). If your body breaks down a medicine too quickly or too slowly, this may cause the medicine to not work as well, or it may cause a side effect.  If your body cannot carry a medicine to the right place, this may also cause the medicine to not work as well.  Or, it may cause a side effect.

 

By testing your DNA, we can find DNA differences.  This can help us to see how well the proteins in your body work to break down or carry different medicines.  The results of this test can help your doctor choose a certain medicine or a certain dose of medicine that is right for you.

Research can take a long time; therefore, we cannot guarantee that we will find information in your sample to return to you. As more samples are processed and genotyping is completed, the Biobank may find information that is medically important for some participants.

If we learn something about your sample, we may be able to return this information if you have consented to have results returned.

• If you signed a Biobank consent form before October 2019, you have not consented to get results from the Biobank, and you must update your consent form if you wish to have results returned. We have recently started to re-contact participants through My Health Connection to invite them to update their consent.
• If you signed a Biobank consent form on or after October 1, 2019, you have already given us permission to share medically relevant information with you. However, not everyone will have this information, so we cannot guarantee that you will have results returned.

If you have pharmacogenetic results available for return and have consented to have these results returned, you will be notified through UCHealth's My Health Connection electronic patient portal.  It can sometimes be difficult to find these results in My Health Connection.  The date for these results refers to the date that your Biobank sample was collected.  This may have been 3-5 years ago.  Therefore, it is important to scroll back several years to find your Biobank results. If you are using the desktop version of My Health Connection on a computer, you can also search for your pharmacogenetic results in My Health Connection.  Using the "search this list" box in test results, you can find your results by typing "PGx" in the box. The "search this list" box is not available on the My Health Connection app.