Specimen:

Plasma

Collection Medium:

Alternate
Collection Media:

Call laboratory for additional acceptable specimen collection 
containers.

Minimum:

2 mL whole blood from light green top tube or 2 light green microtubes 
for pediatric patients

Testing
Schedule:

24 hrs/day, 7 days a week, including holidays.

Analytic Time:

1 hour (upon receipt in laboratory)

Reference Range:

>40 mg/dl

Comments:

Please print, complete and submit the Advance Beneficiary Notice 
(ABN) along with the Laboratory Requisition before shipping the 
specimen.

Test
Limitations:

Criterion: Recovery within plus or minus 10% of initial value.

Icterus: No significant interference up to an I index of 60 for 
conjugated bilirubin and 60 for unconjugated bilirubin (approximate 
conjugated bilirubin concentration: 30 mg/dL; approximate unconjugated 
bilirubin concentration: 60 mg/dL).

Hemolysis: No significant interference up to an H index of 1200 
(approximate hemoglobin concentration: 1200 mg/dL).

Lipemia (Intralipid): No significant interference up to an L index of 
2000. There is poor correlation between turbidity and triglycerides 
concentration.

The claim for lipemia interference is based on the Glick model (1), 
which uses Intralipid as an artificial substrate. To date, there is no 
model available which can mimic interference by triglycerides, as 
triglyceride levels in patient specimens behave unpredictably, 
depending on the nature of the esterified fatty acids in the samples. 
Patient specimens with elevated triglyceride levels are very often 
lipemic. Therefore customers cannot verify interference by 
triglycerides in patient specimens.

Ascorbic acid less than 50 mg/dL.

In rare cases, elevated immunoglobulin concentrations can lead to 
falsely increased HDL-cholesterol results. Abnormal liver function does
affect lipid metabolism; consequently, HDL and LDL results are of 
limited diagnostic value. In some patients with abnormal liver 
function, the HDL-C plus result is significantly negatively biased 
versus the DCM (designated comparison method) result.

Of 17 commonly used drugs tested in vitro, none interfered with the 
assay.

Reference:
Glick MR, Ryder KW, Jackson SA. Graphical Comparisons of Interferences 
in Clinical Chemistry Instrumentation. Clin Chem 1986;32:470-474.

Methodology:

Enzymatic

Sample
Processing:

Centrifuge at 3000 RPM for 10 minutes.
Aliquot plasma into labeled container and cap.

Sample
Storage:

Refrigerate.

Transport
Instructions:

Place specimen into zip-lock type bag, seal bag.
Place requisition into outside pocket of bag.
Transport in cooler with refrigerated coolant packs.

CPT Code:

83718