Bone Marrow Aspirate
All samples must be labelled with 2 unique identifiers identical to the accompanying request form. Samples that do not meet these minimum requirements will NOT be processed.
Specimen Collection
Specimen should be collected into a heparinised sterile container or sterile heparin vacutainer. Bone marrow smears slides can be submitted if testing required is limited to FISH.
Specimen Volume
| Bone Marrow Aspirate | >2 mL (preferably first pull) |
Transportation Temperature
Specimens should be transported at ambient temperature and received within 48 hours of collection. If a delay in transit is anticipated samples may be stored at 4degC overnight.
Turnaround Times
| G-banded metaphase analysis (Routine) | 18 days |
| G-banded metaphase analysis (Urgent) | 5 days |
| FISH (Routine) | 3 days |
| FISH (Urgent) | 24 hours |
Please note
EDTA is NOT the preferred anti-coagulant and can impede cell culture due to its chelation of calcium. Samples received in EDTA can be processed for FISH (non-dividing cells) however it may compromise samples requiring G-banded metaphase analysis.
