Effective immediately, capillary blood lead testing will be mailed out to a reference laboratory due a reagent shortage for in-house capillary blood testing.  For pediatric patients, please continue to order LEAD, BLOOD (BY LEADCARE) [LAB98] and collect capillary blood in a capillary lavender EDTA tube (0.5 mL blood required).  For adults, please order LEAD, WHOLE BLOOD, VENOUS CONFIRMATION BY ICP-MS [LAB7479] and collect venous blood in a royal blue EDTA tube.  The anticipated turnaround time for both these orders is 2 – 4 days from sample collection.  This reagent shortage affects testing performed in Core Lab and at IRL.

We do not have an estimate of when in-house testing will resume.  Further updates will be provided in a follow-up broadcast.

Questions should be directed to Anna Merrill, PhD (678-8400, anna-merrill@uiowa.edu) or Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).