Folate

Specimen Type: Serum
Collection Container: Serum gel
Specimen Volume: 3 mL

0.2 mL

Specimen Type: Plasma
Collection Container: Green top (Lithium heparin)

Room temperature: Undefined
Refrigerated: 7 days
Frozen: 30 days

Samples stored on gel >24 hours, unlabeled, mislabeled, wrong tube type, hemolyzed, QNS, exceeds specimen stability requirements, extended exposure to light.

Daily

Same day

Hemolyzed specimens will give falsely elevated folate levels.

Folate samples should be protected from light.

Accumulation of denatured protein from the pre-treatment step in the sample probe may impact other assays on the ARCHITECT.  Daily maintenance procedure 6041 must be run to eliminate this effect.

Specimens containing human anti-mouse antibodies (HAMA) may show either falsely elevated or depressed values when tested.  Heterophilic antibodies in human serum can react with reagent immunoglobulins, interfering with in vitro assays.  Patients routinely exposed to animals or animal serum products can be prone to this interference, and anomalous values may be observed.  Serum or plasma from patients with renal impairment or failure may exhibit varying degrees of falsely depressed folate values. Methotrexate, aminopterin, and folinic acid (Leucovorin) are chemotherapeutic agents whose molecular structures are similar to folate, and can cross react with folate binding protein.  Do not use the ARCHITECT Folate assay for patients using these drugs.