Effective Monday, March 5, 2012, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics core clinical laboratory will begin running the kappa/lambda free light chains assay. This assay will be available in Epic as "KAPPA LAMBDA QUANT FREE LIGHT CHAIN RATIO, BLOOD" [LAB7454] and will replace the current mailout test (which uses the same methodology).  The units of measurement and reference ranges will not change.

The specimen type is pink top (EDTA) tube – 3 mL whole blood from one pink top tube (adults) or TWO EDTA microtainers (pediatric patients). The test will be available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week (including holidays) with a turnaround time of 1 hour upon receipt in laboratory.

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