Viral Culture, General

Test Code

008573

Alias/See Also

Culture, Viral, General; General Viral Culture; Mumps Viral Culture; Routine Viral Culture; Virus Culture/Isolation

Preferred Specimen

Blood, cerebrospinal fluid, dermal, ocular, genital, mucosal, oral, rectal, respiratory, stool, tissue, urine, or biopsy

Instructions

Specimen should be collected during the acute phase of the disease, as follows: THROAT SWAB: Carefully rub the posterior wall of the nasopharynx with a dry, sterile swab. Avoid touching the tongue or buccal mucosa. Place swab in viral transport tube. BLOOD: Collect 5 mL whole blood into a heparinized tube. Consult laboratory to which specimen will be sent. Send at room temperature. FECES: Collect 4-8 g of feces (about the size of a thumbnail), and place in a clean, screw-capped container. Do not dilute the specimen or use preservatives. Viral swab is acceptable. Refrigerate immediately. RECTAL SWAB: Insert a sterile swab 2" to 4" into the rectumand rub the mucosa. Swab may be placed into cold virus transport medium. Refrigerate immediately. CEREBROSPINAL FLUID: Collect 1 mL CSF aseptically in a sterile dry screw-capped vial. Refrigerate immediately. SKIN LESIONS: Open the vesicle and absorb exudate into adry swab, and/or vigorously scrape base of freshly exposed lesion with a swab to obtain cells which contain viruses. If enough vesicle fluid is available, aspirate the fluid with a fine gauge needle and tuberculin syringe, and place the fluid into cold viral transport medium. Use viral swabs for specimen collection. Refrigerate immediately. URINE: Collect clean-catch, midstream urine in a screw-capped, sterile, plastic container. Refrigerate immediately. TISSUE: Use a fresh set of sterile instruments to collect each tissue. Place each specimen in its own dry, sterile nontoxic screw-capped container. To prevent the tissue from drying out, add a small amount of viral transport medium to the container. Identify each tissue with the patient's name, type of tissue, and date collected. Refrigerate immediately. EYE SWAB or SCRAPING: Use a viral swab to collect conjunctival material. Take conjunctival scrapings with a fine sterile spatula and transfer the scraping to a viral transport medium. Refrigerate immediately. GENITAL SWAB: See skin. Refrigerate immediately.

Transport Container

Viral, Chlamydia, or Mycoplasma culture transport provided by LabCorp, or other appropriate transport medium; sterile screw-cap tube or container for fluids, feces, nasal washings, urine, or biopsy (no preservative); green-top (heparin) tube for blood, b

Transport Temperature

Refrigerate

Specimen Stability

72 hours

Reject Criteria (Eg, hemolysis? Lipemia? Thaw/Other?)

Bacterial swab specimen; specimen received in grossly leaking transport container; dry specimen; specimen submitted in fixative or additive; specimen received in expired transport media or incorrect transport devices; inappropriate specimen transport cond

Methodology
Inoculation of specimen into cell cultures, incubation of cultures, observation for characteristic cytopathic effect, and identification by DFA or other methods

Setup Schedule

M-F (1) SAT (3)

The CPT Codes provided in this document are based on AMA guidelines and are for informational purposes only. CPT coding is the sole responsibility of the billing party. Please direct any questions regarding coding to the payor being billed. Any Profile/panel component may be ordered separately. Reflex tests are performed at an additional charge.