Specimen

Serum

Collection Medium:

Minimum:

Recommended minimum: 1 mL serum collected from 3 mL whole blood in a 
red top tube

Absolute minimum:  0.5 mL serum collected from 1.5 mL whole blood in a 
red top tube

Pediatric minimum:  0.15 mL serum collected from 0.5 mL whole blood in 
a red top tube

Rejection Criteria:

Plasma, severly lipemic, contaminated and hemolyzed specimens

Delivery Instructions:

Submit specimen to laboratory as soon as possible after collection.

Analytic Time:

4 working days

Reference Range:

Antibody concentration of > 0.1 IU/mL is usually considered protective.

Comments:

Include patient immunization status (pre or post immunization) on 
requisition.  Analysis includes both the Pre and Post status if paired 
specimens were submitted.

"Pre" and "post" vaccination samples will be submitted together for 
testing. "Post" sample should be drawn 30 days after immunization and, 
if shipped separately, must be received within 60 days of "pre" sample. 
Please clearly mark samples "Pre-Vaccine" or "Post-Vaccine" so that 
samples will be saved and tested simultaneously.

Test
Limitations:

Responder status is determined according to the ratio of a one-month 
post-vaccination sample to pre-vaccination concentration of Tetanus IgG 
Abs as follows:

1. If the post-vaccination concentration is less than 1.0 IU, the
   patient is considered a nonresponder.
2. If the post-vaccination concentration is greater than or equal to
   1.0 IU, a patient with a ratio of less than 1.5 is a nonresponder,
   a ratio of 1.5 to less than 3.0, a weak responder, and a ratio of
   3.0 or greater, a good responder.
3. If the pre-vaccination concentration is greater than 1.0, it may be
   difficult to assess the response based on a ratio alone.  A
   post-vaccination concentration above 2.5 IU in this case is usually
   adequate.

Methodology:

Multi-Analyte Fluorescent Detection

CPT Code:

86317