Parasites, Blood Smear
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| WSLH Department: | CDD - Communicable Disease Division |
| WSLH Test Code: | MP00880 |
| Day(s) Performed: | Daily, Monday-Friday |
| Turn-around Time: | Same day |
| Recommended Uses: | Diagnosis of a bloodborne parasite infection. |
| Contraindications: | Not recommended for patients who have no history of travel to endemic areas, blood transfusion or arthropod or insect bite/ exposure. |
| Additional Tests Performed: |
| Patient Preparations: | Specimens should be collected while patient is symptomatic if the patient presents with periodicity of symptoms. |
| Specimen Requirements: | Tube of EDTA Blood; thick and thin blood smears (2 each). Slides should be prepared within 1 hour of collection for accurate identification of Plasmodium. |
| Specimen Handling & Transport: | 2-8 C for EDTA blood 2-25 C for blood slides |
| Collection Kit/Container: | |
| Collection Instructions: | Peripheral blood (finger or ear lobe stick) and EDTA blood collected per standard operating procedures. Peripheral blood thick and thin smears should be made immediately. EDTA blood thick and thin smears must be made <1 hour after collection for accurate diagnosis. Whenever possible, blood should be collected prior to initiating anti-malarial therapy. |
| Unacceptable Conditions: | 1. Serum specimens and whole blood without anticoagulant cannot be tested. 2. Slides prepared >1 hour from collection. 3. Specimens collected <4 hours apart. |
| Requisition Form: |
CDD Requisition Form A
Patient Travel History Form |
| Required Information: | Please include Patient Travel History Form. Patient history is critical for the diagnosis and identification of bloodborne parasites. Patient history submitted should include any foreign travel (destination, dates), prophylaxis or treatment received, symptoms (periodicity?), arthropod or insect exposure and bites, or blood transfusions, other. EDTA preserved blood submitted without smears will only be accepted with the following: 1. Plasmodium identification 2. Test method 3. Percent Parasitemia 4. Travel history Laboratory regulations require the following minimum information to be provided on the requisition form for a specimen to be accepted for testing: Patient name or unique identifier; date and time of collection, patient date of birth and sex, specimen type/site of collection, test request(s), clinician name and UPIN, and address for reporting results. Please be certain that name/identifier on the form matches that on the specimen label. |
| Results Include: | Identification of Plasmodium species with parasitemia and other bloodborne parasites detected. No parasites found on microscopic exam. |
| Limitations: | One set of negative blood smears does not exclude bloodborne parasite infection in a patient. Follow-up samples should be collected for a minimum of three successive days and at least six to eight hours apart. Slides prepared >1 hour from collection may disrupt accurate identification. |
| Additional Tests Recommended: | Anaplasma/Ehrlichia PCR if clinically indicated. |
| Additional Comments: | PCR for Positive Smears will be automatically run to confirm identification of Plasmodium and/or Babesia as appropriate. |
| Methodology: | Microscopic analysis |
| Includes: | Analysis of Giemsa-stained thick and thin blood smears for the diagnosis and identification of bloodborne parasites. (Plasmodium, Babesia, Trypanosomes, Microfilaria, etc.) |
| CPT Code: | 87207 |
| Price: | $67.00 Price Effective 1/1/25 |