Lavender top tube
2 mL plasma
0.5 mL plasma
Collect specimen in a lavender top (EDTA) tube. Spin, aliquot and send to Specimen Processing at room temperature
Daily
2 - 5 days
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
VZV reactivation is commonly seen in immunocompromised individuals. These patients are more likely to have disseminated disease with extensive skin lesions, pneumonia, hepatitis, or encephalitis. Proper management is dependent upon early diagnosis; quantitative DNA PCR is a rapid and sensitive tool useful for detecting the virus, tracking the course of the infection, and monitoring response to treatment.
Test sent to Viracor Eurofins.
87799
36129
Acceptable specimen types (1/23/12): aqueous fluid, BAL, bronch wash, CSF, eye swab, skin swab, tissue, trach asp, trach wash, vitreous fluid. All of these specimen types (non-plasma) would be ordered as a Misc Sendout (SO)
Ambient, freeze if specimen will not be received by Viracor within 96 hours.