Sample Information
General Requirements
- Label all patient specimens and requisition forms with the patient’s
name and date of birth.
- Identification
data on the requisition form must match the information on the specimen’s
label.
- Mislabeled/unlabeled
specimens will be rejected.
- See specific
test information or call the lab
to determine which types of specimens are acceptable for a particular test.
Blood and Bone Marrow
- Peripheral blood: Adult: 10 ml; Child: 5 ml;
Infant: 1-2 ml (pediatric tube)
- Bone Marrow: Adult 2-3 ml; Child 1-2 ml; Infant 0.5-1 ml (pediatric tube)
- Peripheral blood or bone marrow should be collected
in an EDTA tube (purple top) and mixed well. Citrate and heparin preserved
specimens are also acceptable.
- Send at room temperature. In winter precautions to prevent freezing should be taken.
If temporary storage is necessary prior to shipping, refrigerate at 4° C.
Frozen Tissue
- Ship tissue frozen (50 mg – 2 g or volume available) on dry ice in
a plastic specimen container
- Do not send tissue in freezing medium
Fixed Tissue
- Send paraffin-embedded tissue blocks (formalin-fixed)
only accepted at room temperature.
- If sending cut sections please send 1 to 2 5-micron sections per tube for each sample.
- Sections of a blank paraffin block cut just before the tissue section should be sent
to serve as a contamination control.
Buccal Cells
- Container: Brush in tube
- Handling: Ship at room temperature. Do not freeze or heat
Extracted DNA
- Amount needed may vary by test type—call lab for special instructions
- Send at room temperature
Extracted RNA
- Amount needed may vary by test type—call lab for special instructions
- Send on dry ice
Special Requirements for Prenatal Samples
- Prior to sending a prenatal specimen (chorionic villus (CVS) or amniotic fluid (amnio)) the
laboratory should be called to confirm sample requirements and alert the laboratory to expect the specimen.
- Fetal specimens must be labeled with the mother’s full name and type
of fetal specimen.
- Maternal blood is required to rule out maternal cell
contamination (MCC). The maternal
blood should be sent following the instructions for peripheral blood
specimens.
- A backup culture must be maintained at the referring laboratory until testing is completed.
You will be contacted if additional specimen is required.
- Facilities for growing cells (CVS or amnio) are also available through the Clinical
Cytogenetics Laboratory.
- Specimen requirements by type:
Amniotic fluid: obtained at >15 weeks
Direct: 10-30 ml unspun
Do not send direct amniotic fluid if gestational age is less than
15 weeks
CVS:
Specimen must be cleaned to remove maternal tissue prior to shipping.
Send greater than 5 mg (5-15 mg) tissue in sterile tissue culture
medium.
Cultured cells: For both amniocytes and CVS, ship two (2) T25 flasks
with greater than 75% confluent cells, filled completely with culture
medium.
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Specimen Shipping
Shipping instructions
- Samples should be sent via express mail or courier
delivery to arrive the same or following day.
- Samples should arrive on weekdays; however if
it is absolutely necessary to ship a sample for weekend delivery please
call the lab for special instructions.
Packaging guidelines
- Recommended shipping conditions are listed by sample type under sample information.
Packaging Guidelines are provided for commercial and international shipping in a pdf document.
What to send with the sample
- All of the following items must be received before
testing can be performed:
1) Molecular Pathology Laboratory requisition
form with patient name, home address,
copy of insurance card and ICD-9
code. Failure to fill out the form completely will
cause a delay
in testing.
2) Physician name and contact information
3) A signed
informed consent form (if required)
4) Clinical information and pedigree, if applicable
5) Client account number or institutional information to set up
client account including:
a. Institution name
b. Physician Name
c. Name and phone number of person to be contacted regarding billing
d. Billing address
Shipping address
Molecular Pathology Laboratory
7 Maloney Building
University of Pennsylvania Health System
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283
(215) 662-6121
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This page was last
updated on
July 3, 2007
