Effective Wednesday, March 14, 2012, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) core laboratory is changing the preferred collection medium for the following drug of abuse-urine tests:

"DRUGS OF ABUSE-URINE" [LAB500]
"DRUG OF ABUSE-URINE + CONFIRM" [LAB1032]
"THC-URINE SCREEN" [LAB5203]
"THC-URINE SCREEN + REFLEXED CONFIRMATION" [LAB7388]

The preferred collection medium will be urine in red top container – 5 mL.  Yellow top (no additive) will still be acceptable but will no longer be the preferred specimen type in Epic or the laboratory handbook.

This change is to move urine drug of abuse testing to same container type as common urine chemistries, and also to facilitate faster turnaround time.

Questions should be directed to Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, medical director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).