CRITERIA FOR REJECTING UNSUITABLE SAMPLES (Οδηγία εργασίας ΟΕ 5.4-02 έκδοση 2 Κεφ 4.2, 4.4, 4.5)

CRITERIA FOR REJECTING UNSUITABLE BLOOD SAMPLES

Blood samples that exhibit one or more of the following characteristics should be rejected as unsuitable:

1. Insufficient sample volume
2. Sample placed in the wrong tube (e.g., whole blood in a clot)
3. Broken tube
4. Hemolysed or lipemic sample,
5. Inappropriate storage (e.g., out of refrigerator) or processing (e.g., delayed centrifugation of the sample)
6. Incorrect day and time of sample collection
7. Inappropriate labelling of the sample
8. Presence of a clot in a tube with anticoagulant.

CRITERIA FOR REJECTION OF UNSUITABLE SAMPLES FOR CULTURE

Samples that exhibit one or more of the following characteristics are rejected as unsuitable for culture:

1. Long delay in sending the sample to the laboratory

2. Samples in formalin

3. 24-hour collection samples

4. Doubt about the identity of the sample

5. One swab for multiple cultures (aerobes, anaerobes, fungi, mycobacteria, chlamydia, mycoplasma)

6. Samples in unsuitable or non-sterile containers or containers with leakage or broken containers

7. Dry swabs

8. Samples with obvious contamination from foreign bodies (fatty substances, barium, dyes, etc.) or from normal flora of an adjacent area (e.g. admixture of sputum with saliva or nasopharyngeal secretions)

9. Wash samples (gastric, urinary, prostate, etc.)

10. Insufficient sample quantity

11. Urine sample without cleaning the urogenital area, without medium stream, sample remained in room temperature for more than 2 hours or more than 24 hours in a refrigerator

12. For anaerobic microbes: Feces, swabs from stomas, upper respiratory, skin, environmental samples

CRITERIA FOR REJECTING INAPPROPRIATE 24-HOUR URINE SAMPLES

24-hour urine samples that exhibit one or more of the following characteristics should be discarded as unsuitable:

1. Inadequate sample collection
2. Inappropriate sample storage temperature
3. Incorrect preservative placed in the container
4. Inappropriate container (e.g. contaminated)
5. Inappropriate sample labelling