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• New Collection Containers for Urinalysis/Blood Bank
• Universal Viral Transport to Replace Viral Culturette

New Collection Containers for Urinalysis/Blood Bank

In an effort to make transfer of urine from a cup to a tube a safer process, we will be switching all orders for urinalysis from the yellow top conical tubes to the orange & yellow top BD Vacutainer conical tubes. Theses tubes can be filled using the same transfer straw that you currently use to fill the Urine Culture and Sensitivity gray top tubes. Please remember to fill the tube to the top as this gives you the most accurate microscopic results. Once filled the tube should be inverted 8-10 times to mix the specimen with the preservative. This preservative will allow the urine to be tested up to 72 hours after collection. These tubes will be available from MuirLab on December 1, 2004.

We are also switching the tubes for Blood Bank orders. For outpatients those are usually Type & Screens or Prenatal Panels. We are currently using the pink top 6 mL BD Vacutainer tubes. We have found that in dealing with those patients with antibodies that need subsequent antibody identification panels and/or titers, we often run out of specimen and have to have the patient redrawn. We now have a purple top (EDTA) BD Vacutainer tube that holds 10 mL and we are asking that you start to use that tube instead of the smaller one. A full tube will give us plenty of sample to run several panels and titers. These tubes also can be obtained from MuirLab and should be available within the next several months.

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Universal Viral Transport to Replace Viral Culturette

Recently, customers may have noticed that MuirLab has begun to distribute the new Universal Viral Transport collection kit. This kit replaces the old Viral Culturette which has been discontinued. The new collection kit should be used for all specimens collected for viral, chlamydial, mycoplasmal or ureaplasmal investigation. Customers are asked to follow the collection and handling guidelines that accompany the collection kits. To assure optimal specimen integrity customers are advised to refrigerate specimens immediately and arrange for specimen transport as soon as possible. Specimens should remain refrigerated until they are transported to the testing lab.

The Universal Viral Transport System includes a screw-cap tube containing 3 ml. of transport medium, one regular size plastic scored shaft swab and one stainless steel wire-plastic scored shaft - Minitip swab. Both types of swabs are designed with polyester fiber tips. Proper specimen collection instructions will be provided for collection of specimens with each kit order.

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