Extrinsic Factor Profile

500041

Plasma, FROZEN

2mL

Blood should be collected in a blue-top tube containing 3.2% buffered sodium citrate.[1] Evacuated collection tubes must be filled to completion to ensure a proper blood to anticoagulant ratio.[2,3] The sample should be mixed immediately by gentle inversion at least 6 times to ensure adequate mixing of the anticoagulant with the blood. A discard tube is not required prior to collection of coagulation samples.[4,5] When noncitrate tubes are collected for other tests, collect sterile and nonadditive (red-top) tubes prior to citrate (blue-top) tubes. Any tube containing an alternate anticoagulant should be collected after the blue-top tube. Gel-barrier tubes and serum tubes with clot initiators should also be collected after the citrate tubes. Centrifuge and (using a plastic transfer pipette) carefully remove the plasma with- out disturbing the cells. Transfer the plasma into a LabCorp PP transpak frozen purple tube with screw cap (LabCorp ID 23751). The specimen should be FROZEN immediately and main- tained frozen until tested. To avoid delays in turnaround when requesting multiple tests on frozen samples, please submit separate frozen specimens for each test requested.

Blue-top (sodium citrate) tube

FREEZE