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The University of Chicago Medicine Laboratories

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Mayo Clinic Laboratories

Test Code CA Calcium

Specimen and Container/Tube

Specimen Type: Plasma

Preferred Specimen: Li-Heparin Mint Green Top

Other Acceptable specimens: Serum/Gold Top, Serum/Red Top

Collection Instructions

Collect specimen per standard laboratory collection procedures. 

 

Specimen Handling and Transport Instructions

UCMC Onsite Instructions: 

Collect specimen per standard collection procedure and send to laboratory immediately. 

 

UCMC Offsite and UC MedLab Outreach Instructions: 

  • Samples should be centrifuged within 2 hours of collection.
  • Centrifuge specimens at >2500 x g for 10 minutes at room temperature.
  • Aliquot sample into plastic transport tube containing a minimum of 0.2 mL of specimen.
  • Samples must be sent room temperature at 15-25oC.

Reference Values

 

Test

Age

Sex

Reference Range

Calcium

All

All

8.4-10.2 mg/dL

Note: Reference range based on in-house studies, recommendations from Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry, and Roche product literature. 

Volume

Preferred Volume: 0.5 mL

Minimum Volume: 0.2 mL

Specimen Stability

Storage Temperature

Stability

Room temperature

7 days

Refrigerated

3 weeks

Frozen

8 months

Rejection Criteria

  • Common specimen rejected situations include: incorrect specimen type, insufficient volume, missing or incomplete specimen identifiers, incorrect specimen transport, or specimens outside stability limits. 
  • Specimens that are clotted or grossly hemolyzed.
  • Specimens that were transported unspun/whole blood and draw time is greater than 6 hours.

Critical Values

Analyte

Unit

Low

High

Age

Calcium

mg/dL

<6.0

>13.0

All

Test Components

Calcium
 

Clinical Indications

The test is used for the diagnosis and monitoring of hypocalcemia (calcium deficiency) and hypercalcemia (excess calcium) in serum.

Methodology

Spectrophotometric (with 5-nitro-5'-methyl-BAPTA) (Roche Diagnostics)

CPT Codes

82310

LOINC Codes

17861-6

Additional Information

  • Results should always be assessed in conjunction with patient's medical history, clinical examination and other findings.
  • Serum or plasma should be separated from blood cells as soon as possible, because prolonged contact with the clot may cause lower calcium values.
  • Sera from patients receiving EDTA (treatment of hypercalcemia) are unsuitable for analysis, since EDTA will chelate the calcium and render it unavaliable for reaction with NM-BAPTA.
  • Drugs containing strontium salts may lead to significantly increased calcium results.
  • Intravenously administered contrast media for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) contain chelating complexes which may interfere with the determination of calcium.
  • A sharp decrease in calcium values was observed when gadodiamide (GdDTPA-BMA) was administered. Follow the instructions of the manufacturer with regard to the retention time of the contrast medium.
  • Also included in CPNL, KPNL, RPNL, SSTCP, SSTKP, STKG

Turnaround Time

Turnaround times are relative to the time the specimen is received in the test laboratory. 

 

STAT Turnaround Time: 1 hour

Routine Turnaround Time: 4 hours

Testing Schedule: 24/7

Synonyms/Keyword Search

Calcium, Total

Last Review Date

8/19/2024

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