Specimen Requirements

Specimen must be drawn in a pre-chilled, lithium heparin tube and kept on ice. Label the specimen with the patient's name, date of birth, date and time of draw and the phlebotomist's initials. Send unprocessed, whole blood to the lab on ice. Once in the lab, the specimen is to be centrifuged in a refrigerated centrifuge and immediately placed back on ice for delivery to the chemistry department. 

Specimen stability:

Must be analyzed within 4 hours of collection

Minimum volume:

1 mL