Container/Tube: Light blue-top (3.2% sodium citrate) tube-Grossly hemolyzed, clotted, or insufficient specimen is not acceptable.
Specimen Volume: 2.5 mL of sodium citrate plasma
Onsite Collection:
Collect specimen in a blue top (citrate 3.2%) tube. Mix by inversion. Forward to the laboratory at room temperature.
Specimen stability at room temperature, is 4 hours.
Refrigeration is unacceptable for whole blood samples.
Offsite Collection:
Collect specimen in a blue top (citrate 3.2%) tube, Mix by inversion. Centrifuge, aliquot plasma into a plastic vial, and freeze the specimen within 4 hours of collection. Transport frozen specimen on dry ice.
Specimen stability of a frozen, aliquoted plasma specimen is 7 days.
Specimen stability of a refrigerated, aliquoted plasma specimen is 4 hours.
Note: 1. Hematocrit >50% will affect results.
2. Tube must be completely filled to ensure proper ratio of blood to anticoagulant and to avoid erroneous results.
Light Scatter
180-350 mg/dL
Critical value (automatic call-back): <100 mg/dL
Monday through Sunday
Available STAT
85384