Specimen:

Serum or Plasma

Collection Medium:

Alternate
Collection Media:

Royal Blue K2 EDTA tube

Minimum:

Preferred Adult Minimum: 2.0 mL serum or plasma from royal blue
  (no additive) tube or royal blue EDTA
Absolute Pediatric Minimum 0.5 mL serum or plasma from royal blue
 (no additive) tube or royal blue EDTA

Rejection Criteria:

Hemolyzed specimens

Analytic Time:

3 days

Reference Range:

60-120 mcg/dL

Comments:

Royal Blue trace metal tube available from Specimen Control, 6240 RCP.

Test
Limitations:

Circulating zinc concentrations are dependent on albumin status and are 
depressed with malnutrition.  Zinc may also be lowered with infection, 
inflammation, stress, oral contraceptives, and pregnancy.  Zinc may be 
elevated with zinc supplementation or fasting.  Elevated zinc 
concentrations may interfere with copper absorption.

Elevated results from noncertified trace element-free tubes may be due 
to contamination.  Elevated concentrations of trace elements in serum 
should be confirmed with a second specimen collected in a trace 
element-free tube, such as royal blue sterile tube (no additive).

Methodology:

Inductively Coupled Plasma/Mass Spectrometry

CPT Code:

84630