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The University of Chicago Medicine Laboratories

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Specimen Collection and Handling

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Mayo Clinic Laboratories

Test Code HSCRP High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein

Specimen and Container/Tube

Specimen Type: Plasma

Preferred Specimen: Li-Heparin Mint Green Top

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

Volume

Preferred Volume: 0.5 mL

Minimum Volume: 0.2 mL

Specimen Stability

Storage Temperature

Stability for Li-Heparin Plasma and Serum

Room temperature

11 days

Refrigerated

2 months

Frozen

3 years

 

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.
  • Li-Heparin Plasma and Serum samples must be sent room temperature at 15-25oC.

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.

Reference Values

 

Test

Age

Sex

Reference Range

hsCRP

All

All

<5 mg/L

 

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

Critical Values

Analyte

Unit

Low

High

Age

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

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

Clinical Indications

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a biomarker of inflammation. Serum CRP concentrations increase rapidly and dramatically (100-fold or more) in response to tissue injury or inflammation. High-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) is more precise than standard CRP when measuring baseline (ie, normal) concentrations and enables a measure of chronic inflammation.

Assessment of risk of developing myocardial infarction in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes.

 

Assessment of risk of developing cardiovascular disease or ischemic events in individuals who do not manifest disease at present.

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease and hs-CRP has been endorsed by multiple guidelines as a biomarker of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk.(1-3)

Test Components

High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein
 

Methodology

Particle Enhanced Immunoturbidimetric Assay (Roche Diagnostics)

CPT Codes

86141

LOINC Codes

30522-7

Synonyms/Keyword Search

Protein, C-Reactive

Additional Information

hsCRP level (mg/L)

hsCRP level (nmol/L)

Relative risk

       < 1.0

         < 9.52

    low

      1.0-3.0

       9.52-28.6

average

       > 3.0

         > 28.6

    high

 

Patients with higher hsCRP concentrations are more likely to develop myocardial infarction and severe peripheral vascular disease. 5-95 % reference intervals of neonates and children: Neonates (0-3 weeks): 0.1-4.1 mg/L (0.95-39.0 nmol/L) Children (2 months-15 years): 0.1-2.8 mg/L (0.95-26.7 nmol/L)

 

Last Review Date

5/30/25