Effective Monday, August 26, 2013, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics core clinical laboratory is changing the preferred specimen container for urine chemistry tests that include urine electrolyte, osmolality, protein electrophoresis, drug of abuse, and toxicology testing.  This applies only to random urine collection, not 24 hour (timed) collections.  This change will facilitate faster turnaround time.

The preferred specimen container will be urine in clear top tube – 6.0 mL, which is now available in hospital stores (# 75971; see photo below).  For hospital units or clinics using paperless ordering, the label will direct to use 6.0 mL clear top tube.  Note that this is not the same tube as the 3.0 mL clear tube used as discard when performing phlebotomy.

The tests affected by this change are:

Test name	Epic Order #
Urine Chemistries (Random Collections)      AMYLASE – URINE, RANDOM      CHLORIDE – URINE, RANDOM      CREATININE – URINE, RANDOM      GLUCOSE – URINE, RANDOM      MICROALBUMIN – URINE RANDOM      OSMOLALITY – URINE      POTASSIUM – URINE, RANDOM      SODIUM – URINE, RANDOM      PROTEIN – URINE, RANDOM      UREA NITROGEN – URINE, RANDOM	LAB557 LAB587 LAB600 LAB614 LAB646 LAB653 LAB669 LAB904 LAB845 LAB868
Urine Drug of Abuse and Toxicology Tests      DRUG OF ABUSE – URINE      DRUG OF ABUSE – URINE + CONFIRM      AMPHETAMINES – URINE SCREEN      AMPHETAMINE, URINE CONFIRMATION      BENZODIAZEPINES – URINE SCREEN      BENZODIAZEPINE, URINE, CONF      COCAINE – URINE SCREEN      COCAINE, URINE CONFIRMATION      ETHANOL, URINE      OPIATES – URINE SCREEN      OPIATE, URINE CONFIRMATION      OXYCODONE – URINE SCREEN      THC – URINE SCREEN      THC – URINE SCREEN + REFLEXED CONFIRMATION	LAB500 LAB1032 LAB7381 LAB2586 LAB7382 LAB368 LAB7384 LAB379 LAB605 LAB7385 LAB3034 LAB7386 LAB5203 LAB7388
Urine protein electrophoresis (Random Collections)      URINE IMMUNOFIXATION ELECTROPHORESIS      URINE PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS	O51243 O51238

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