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Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery

Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Southeast Michigan, Taylor, Trenton, Troy, Wayne

Body Fluid Culture – Specimen Collection Update

Effective June 1, 2026, Corewell Health Microbiology Laboratory in Southeast Michigan is updating specimen collection criteria for body fluid specimens. Microbiology will no longer accept red top vacutainer tubes as a collection device for body fluids (i.e. synovial fluid, pleural fluid, peritoneal fluid, etc). Collection criteria information has been updated in Corewell’s Lab Test Directory to reflect this change. Test order for body fluid cultures is LAB2111016 (aerobic culture) and commonly accompanied by LAB233 (anaerobic culture). Continue Reading

May 22, 2026 by
General Information, Hemostasis/Coagulation

Reference Range Updates Coagulation Laboratory

Effective December 2, 2024 at 08:00 AM, Corewell Health West Laboratory Coagulation Department will be updating the reference range for several assays. The following will be impacted by these changes:

APTT testing for the BCS XP analyzers will be updating to 22.0 – 27.0 seconds.

This will include the following tests:

Effective December 2, 2024 at 08:00 AM, the Corewell Health West and South Coagulation Departments will be updating the reference range of the Fibrinogen Level (LAB 314) to 190-450 mg/ dL.

Questions may be directed to the Coagulation Laboratory using the Contact Us link above.

November 27, 2024 by
Microbiology

Sinus Culture Order Considerations

The management of sinusitis is often aided by bacterial and fungal cultures from which Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and occasionally aerobic Gram-negative bacilli are the most commonly recovered pathogenic organisms. The Corewell Health West Microbiology Lab has several orders available for culturing sinus specimens collected as fluid aspirates, tissue, or swabs. Though more challenging to collect, aspirates are preferred over swab cultures that often grow mixed normal upper respiratory flora for which it is difficult to interpret the clinical significance.

Available Sinus Culture Orders Default Specimen Type Comments
Body Fluid Culture [LAB2111016]

Respiratory Culture [LAB3095]

Tissue Culture [LAB2111173]

 Aspirated fluid

Swabbed collection

Tissue

 For aerobic bacteria
Fungal Culture [LAB240] Aspirated fluid or tissue, preferred

Swabbed collection

 For fungal organisms
Anaerobic Culture [LAB233] Aspirated fluid or tissue* For anaerobic bacteria

Continue Reading

June 30, 2023 by
Hemostasis/Coagulation

Update: PT/INR Resulting Change

The Spectrum Health Laboratory Coagulation Department announces the following changes occurring on 6.29.21 because of new instrumentation:

• New coagulation instrumentation will go-live on 6.29.21.

• This new instrumentation will align the Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory (in GR) with current Regional/Blodgett reportable upper limit for Protime/INR results.

• The current Protime (PT) upper limit of 120 seconds will change to 90 seconds. Any result that is greater than 90 seconds, will be reported as >90 seconds.

• The current INR upper limit of 12.0 will change to 8.0. Any result that is greater than 8.0 will be reported as >8.0.

Any questions can be directed to the Spectrum Health Regional Laboratory Coagulation Department using the Contact Us link above.

TEST INFORMATION 

PT/INR (Protime with INR): Epic Code #LAB320 | Interface code #10059 | CPT #85610

June 29, 2021 by