Pericardial fluid specimen

Fluid specimens apply to abdominal washings, ascitic fluids, colonic washings, duodenal washings, gastric washings, pleural fluids, pericardial fluids, ovarian cyst fluids, synovial fluids, and sputa. 

Another issue in postmortem testing for ethanol is postmortem diffusion of ethanol from the stomach into the surrounding tissues. This phenomenon becomes evident within 48 h after death of individuals who died shortly after drinking sessions. In these cases, cardiac blood, blood in the thoracic and abdominal large vessels, pericardial fluid, and bile show falsely elevated levels of ethanol. Femoral venous blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid are relatively spared from ethanol diffusion from the stomach. However, vitreous humor is the best specimen of choice due to its anatomical location. 

Blood and body fluids include bulk laboratory specimens of blood tissue, sanen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, pleural fluid, peritoneal fluid, pericardial fluid, and amniotic fluid. Precautions do not apply to feces, nasal secretions, sputum, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit unless they contain visible blood. Handle free-flowing materials or items saturated to the point of dripping liquids containing visible blood or blood components. Pathological waste includes all discarded waste from renal dialysis contaminated with peritoneal fluid or blood visible to the human eye. Consider solid renal dialysis waste as medical waste if saturated and demonstrate the potential to drip/splash blood or other regulated body fluids. Waste sharps include any used or unused discarded article that may cause punctures or cuts. 

Blood and body fluids include bulk laboratory specimens of blood tissue, semen, vaginal secretions, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, pleural fluid, peritoneal fluid, pericardial fluid, and amniotic fluid. Precautions do not apply to feces, nasal secretions, sputum, sweat, tears, urine, or vomit unless... 

Many errors can occur during the collection, processing, and transport of biological specimens. Minimizing these errors win result in more reliable information for use by healthcare professionals. Examples of biological specimens that are analyzed in clinical laboratories include whole blood serum plasma urine feces saliva spinal, synovial, amniotic, pleural, pericardial, and ascitic fluids and various types of solid tissue. The National Committee for CMnical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) has published several procedures for collecting many of these specimens under standardized conditio ns.In addition, the NCCLS has published documents related to sample collection and analysis for specialized tests, such as sweat chloride (see also Chapter 27). 

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