Antibody Titer

Specimen Type: Whole Blood EDTA

Collection Container/Type

Preferred: Lavender top (EDTA)

Acceptable: Pink top (EDTA)

Specimen Volume: 6 mL

Collection Instructions: 

1. Blood bank samples should be collected with SoftID (electronic positive patient ID) collection software if available.


2. Blood Bank samples collected without an electronic positive patient ID process using a downtime process must have a specimen labeled in the presence of the patient and a downtime form/requisition completed.


3. The staff member collecting shall notate their electronic collection user ID, or Inova Network ID, physician ID or First initial and Full Last Name on the specimen label and the downtime form/requisition.


4. All specimen labels must be properly labeled.

Additional Information: All specimen labels must contain the following information.

• Patients full first and last name. The specimen is not acceptable if the label is missing part of the name due to printer misalignment. The specimen is also not acceptable if the name on the label does not match the name printed on order or what is displayed in LIS.  Exception: For computer generated patient labels the first name may be truncated as indicated by a star (*).


• Patients medical record number (MR#) Date and time of collection - Specimens must be received by an Inova facility or approved non-Inova facility within 12 hours of collection.


• Collector identifier – LIS or HIS / EMR user ID, Inova network log-on (most commonly 5 letters of last name +2 letters of 1st name), physician ID, or first initial and entire last name.  If collector ID is not written / printed on the label, the specimen will be rejected even if the collector ID is viewable in LIS. Specimens collected with a downtime process require a completed downtime form/requisition form accompanies the specimen, with all the same collection information as the specimen label.

3 mL

Room temperature: 24 hours

Refrigerated: 24 hours

Frozen: Unacceptable

QNS, Labeling errors, negative antibody screen

1 day