Plasma viscosity measurement is no longer available in this laboratory or across New Zealand due to the difficulty of obtaining correct instrumentation and analyser replacement costs. Numbers of requests have been significantly reducing over the past few years as it is a non-specific screening test measuring the presence of proteins produced in normal response to infection or inflammation or abnormally in certain disease (such as paraproteins). Given that there are other alternative testing methods currently available (CRP, ESR, serum electrophoresis) the decision has been made to withdraw this test.