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I would add, APPT, PT, INR, T3-T4-TSH (thyroid), iron, ferritin, TIBC, sTfR, DHEA-s, cortisol, liver enzymes!
IMHO

dim out of the list we've generated between us, how would you prioritize the various tests in the event that someone were on a budget and needed to space things out over time?

I'd say vit D (25-OH), uric acid, iron related (for inflammation) and liver enzymes (only for those that take medications which affect liver function).
Regarding zinc that I know you love it if you have 2-3 continuous tests during a year (every 3-4 months) you can adapt your dose so you don't need to check it regularly!

Thank you for answering, I will ask my neuro to send me to test those, if I have to wait, I can go on my own. Of course, I'll share my results, I'm interested too, you know
And what you think of Coral Calcium?

no probs LH, and thanks for sharing do let us know if they already tested your b12. i can't imagine someone dx-ing ms without doing that. same thing for the liver enzyme testing. i would be very surprised if a doc did not order liver enzyme tests when prescribing meds that have a reputation for liver damage.

i agree with dim re: d3 and uric acid.

please do consider the zinc also, because of it being consistently low in ms patients too. i can't confirm yet but research supports that normalizing my zinc might also have pushed my uric acid higher, up out of the ms range a bit. i also think that since zinc fights inflammation, that it could help manage some of the elevated ferritin issues.

iron is good to know, but a bit of a toughie to assess results when you are suffering from chronic inflammation. i know serum ferritin is artificially elevated by chronic inflammation, so it's not a reliable test on its own in MS. dim can you clarify how the other iron tests can reveal underlying iron deficiency (or adequacy) in spite of high ferritin due to inflammation? (i know this normally but i haven't woken up properly yet!)
anyway, you can watch your ferritin over time and see if it normalizes with efforts to clear up inflammation.

dim i should get organized to do the regular zinc testing - once my doc is back from her leave. i really do want to compare it to ferritin and uric acid. my iron has always been borderline or outright deficient, right up until i stopped being a vegan. last trip it was low-normal, my highest ever. maybe i'll call the doc and see if i can get an idea when she'd be coming back.

oh yea, and coral calcium, i haven't looked into any difference between that and regular calcium. here's what the wiki editors have to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Calcium

Sorry Jimmy forgot B12 as first priority blood test.
As I say zinc is essential and you need to check it regularly but if you normalize it it stays usualy there as did in my wife, on the other hand ferritin isn't reliable test for iron defficiency overload or chronic inflammation, ferritin saturation is from what have read and is reversely corelated with sTfR, I am not sure though if labs do the last blood test, you can see my question in other topic!

thanks dim - i'll have a read-up on the ferritin stuff before i go in with my next list of requisitions

dim, how is your wife day to day anyway? is she feeling good all in all?

If you read my recent posts Jimmy we had some bad days recently, not a relapse as the symptoms started the first day of her period (this happens every month) but they didn't fade away the first-second day after!
Fortunately she is currently fine, from what I can tell is her psychological situation that caused the symptoms rather the MS itself, except this and some symptom enhancement during cold and flues she is fine (every time I say this she experiences some problems even mild ) the last 1,5 year.

that's not fun DIM. so... symptoms around colds/flux and menstrual cycle?? sorry for this, but it is kind of sounding zinc-ish to me...
to clarify, may i ask, what exactly are her zinc results? a while back you said exactly the middle of the normal range... but what is that, where you are? my lab's normal range for zinc is 11.5 - 18.5µmol/L. so the middle of that would be 15µmol/L. is that where your wife is at, roughly?

Jimmy when I say symptoms the first day of her menstrual cycle I mean very very mild symptoms as my wife is completely symptom free, no fatigue, no numbness, no diziness etc moreover this phenomenon doesn't happen every month but periodically.
Around colds and flues yes she has mild symptoms that fade away when she is well again.
Her zinc status is at 103 µg/dL which means about 15.6 µmol/L, she takes daily 50mg zinc and you know that from day one zinc is one of the supplements that took my attention, it also affects adrenal function and most MSers suffer from adrenal fatigue!

exactly, DIM. have you ever had a look at this thread?
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopicp-50227.html#50227

an interesting abstract for your review:

Clin Chim Acta. 2006 Nov;373(1-2):132-8.
Serum vitamin A and zinc levels of healthy people in northeast Thailand.
BACKGROUND: Vitamin A and zinc are micronutrients which co-related to diseases afflicting northeast Thais. Vitamin A and zinc concentrations in serum have been studied in healthy northeast Thais between 23 and 75 years. METHODS: Vitamin A was analyzed by HPLC and zinc was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. RESULTS: The average serum vitamin A level of the population (n=744) was 2.30 micromol/l (95% CI=2.25-2.35). Males had significantly higher vitamin A levels than females, i.e. 2.61 micromol/l (95% CI=2.53-2.68) vs. 2.03 micromol/l (95% CI=1.98-2.09) (p<0.0001). The vitamin A level of females tended to increase significantly with age (p<0.005), whereas in males levels were relatively constant throughout the age range studied. The average serum zinc level of the population (n=1113) was 18.20 micromol/l (95% CI=18.05-18.36). There was no significant difference in the zinc levels between males and females, i.e. 18.20 micromol/l (95% CI=17.90-18.36) vs. 18.36 micromol/l (95% CI=18.05-18.66). The zinc level tended to decrease significantly as age increased, particularly in the male population (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results from this study provide baseline data of serum vitamin A and zinc levels in healthy northeast Thais.