Specimen Requirements

Specimen Type: Bone Marrow Aspirate

Container/Tube:

Preferred: EDTA (lavender top)

Acceptable: Sodium Heparin (dark green top), or ACDA (pale yellow, no gel separator)

Specimen Volume: 2 mL

Specimen Minimum Volume: 1 mL

Collection Instructions:

1. Invert several times to mix bone marrow.
2. Send specimen at ambient temperature in original container.
3. Include a YPI requisition and copy of a recent CBC report.

Specimen Type: Bone Marrow Core

Container/Tube: RPMI

Specimen Volume: 2 cm core length

Specimen Minimum Volume: 1 cm core length

Collection Instructions: 

1. Send RPMI specimen at ambient temperature.
2. Include a YPI requisition and copy of a recent CBC report.

Specimen Type: Peripheral Blood

Container/Tube:

Preferred: EDTA (lavender top)

Acceptable: Sodium Heparin (dark green top), or ACDA (pale yellow, no gel separator)

Specimen Volume: 2 mL

Specimen Minimum Volume: 1 mL

Collection Instructions:

1. Invert several times to mix blood.
2. Send specimen at ambient temperature in original container.
3. Include a YPI requisition and copy of a recent CBC report.

Specimen Type: Fresh Tissue

Container/Tube: RPMI

Specimen Minimum Volume: 2 pieces of tissue 0.2 cm³

Collection Instructions: 

1. Send RPMI specimen at ambient temperature.
2. Include a YPI requisition and copy of a recent CBC report.

Specimen Type: Body Fluid/Fine Needle Aspirate

Container/Tube: RPMI

Specimen Volume: Equal parts RPMI and specimen volume

Collection Instructions: 

1. Send RPMI specimen at ambient temperature.
2. Include a YPI requisition and copy of a recent CBC report.

Specimen Rejection:

1.  Unlabeled specimens.

2.  Specimens collected in wrong container/tube.

3.  Specimens retained past viability.