| Patient Preparations: |
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| Specimen Requirements: |
Minimum 0.5 mL of plasma or serum |
| Specimen Handling & Transport: |
Plasma or serum should remain frozen during transport. NOTE: Refrigerated specimens are acceptable provided the time between collection and receipt is less than 24 hours. |
| Collection Kit/Container: |
Serum Separator Tube (red top) or Heparin Tube (green top)
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| Collection Instructions: |
Preferred green top tube with either Sodium Heparin or Lithium Heparin additive or serum separator tube. Draw 2.5 times the volume requested. Gently invert the tube no more than eight times. Further inversion my cause loss of sample integrity. Separate plasma by centrifugation. For serum, do not centrifuge immediately after collection. Allow the blood to clot at least 30 minutes, but no more than 1 hour before centrifugation. Transfer the plasma or serum to plastic screw top freezer vial. Freeze the specimen as soon as it is separated from red blood cells. Do not ship frozen plasma or serum in glass tubes. |
| Unacceptable Conditions: |
Specimens sent at ambient temperature; Specimens with contamination (blood, bacteria, lipids); Mislabeled specimens; Insufficient specimen quantity |
| Requisition Form: |
Biochemical Genetics Requisition Form
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| Required Information: |
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. |