Sending a sample to the laboratory and contact details

Laboratory details

Laboratory extension: 85774

Office extension: 85863

Direct line: 01895 828774    

Normal working hours: Monday to Friday: 9am to 5pm

24-hour emergency service

An out of hours service is provided for thoracic organ transplantation. Contact the tissue typing mobile telephone via the switchboard on 01895 823 737.

Minimum requirements for sample acceptance

The Trust places great emphasis on accurate patient identification and correct specimen labelling and request form completion. The attention of users is therefore drawn to the requirements set out in the Trust ‘Policy for Request form completion, patient identification, Labelling of Lab Med specimens’ which is located within the Patient Related policies on the Trust intranet. If the form or samples do not meet these requirements then the request will be rejected, the user notified of this and a repeat sample requested. 

The minimum requirements are:

Sample tube:

  • Name
  • Hospital Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Date of Sample

Request form: 

  • Name
  • Hospital number
  • Date of birth
  • Ward of origin
  • Consultant to whom report should be addressed
  • Date of sample collection
  • Sensitisation details (pregnancies, transfusions and surgery)

Routine samples are generally accepted 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 9pm to 3pm on Friday. 

NB. It is laboratory policy not to process unlabelled samples.

Urgent HLA antibody screening can be performed, pre- or post-transplant only by prior arrangement with the laboratory. 

Patient status Tests required Sample type
New Tx assessment HLA typing 4x 4.5ml Na Cit (pale blue) or EDTA tube (mauve)
Antibody screening 2x CAT tube (red top)
 
Repeat assessment Antibody screening 2x CAT tube (red top)
Transplant recipient (taken within 24 hours prior to transplant)  Crossmatching and antibody screening 2x CAT tube (red top) 
Auto-crossmatching  4x 4.5ml Na Cit (pale blue) or EDTA tube (mauve)
Live lung recipient Crossmatching and antibody screening 2x CAT tube (red top)
 
HLA typing and auto-crossmatching 4x 4.5ml Na Cit (pale blue) or EDTA tube (mauve) 
 
Live lung donor HLA typing and crossmatching 4x 4.5ml Na Cit (pale blue) or EDTA tube (mauve)  
Post-transplant monitoring Antibody screening 2x CAT tube (red top)

 

Packaging and transportation

Internal samples from wards are collected from the wards and require no special packaging or transportation.

Please note: All clinical specimens, blood and other samples are potential biohazards and must be packaged to comply with the current regulations on the transport and postage of biological materials. Samples should be packaged so that they maintain patient confidentiality and prevent leakage and/or contamination to couriers and porters.

It is the responsibility of the sender to ensure that all samples are packaged in accordance with the current European Agreement concerning The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009, in order to prevent breakage or spillage in transit.

View the Tissue Typing user guide (PDF, 454KB).

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