The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is dedicated to the provision of diagnostic laboratory services in an appropriate, accurate, timely and cost-effective manner. This Laboratory Services Test Catalog is an external-facing platform which provides general information on the department and detailed instructions on the correct procedures for collection and transport of specimens to be submitted to the laboratory.

The Catalog has been expanded to include the full test menu for both ChristianaCare and Mayo Medical Laboratories.

LABORATORY UPDATES:

Ionized Calcium Sample Type Change

Effective 12/10/2024, the General Labs at Christiana, Wilmington and Cecil campuses will begin running ionized calcium (CAION) on a new analyzer. The new specimen requirement for CAION will be whole blood collected in dark green lithium heparin tube (no gel). Until 12/10/2024, CAION testing was drawn in a mint green plasma separator (PST) tube and CAION was ordered individually or as part of the BMPi order. Moving forward, for a BMPi order, two tubes (PST and dark green lithium heparin) MUST be drawn. The PST can no longer be shared.

Strike Up the Band

Effective 10/21/2024, the laboratories across ChristianaCare will stop reporting bands as a part of manual differentials in most clinical settings except for NICU babies. Bands and segmented neutrophils will be counted and report together as Segs. Additionally, the labs will also stop calling band alerts on ED and OB Observation patients. This decision was made in collaboration with clinical service line leaders and laboratory physicians following latest recommendations and guidelines from laboratory medicine societies.