Final answer:
A blood specimen may be rejected due to incorrect labeling, being expired, clotting, or insufficient quantity. Proper handling is crucial to avoid compromising specimen integrity, especially in medical conditions like hemolytic anemia or in trauma cases. Laboratory practices, such as allowing blood to clot to separate serum, and using agglutination to determine blood type, further illustrate the importance of careful specimen management.
Step-by-step explanation:
There are several reasons why a blood specimen may be rejected by a laboratory. Among these reasons are:
- Incorrect labeling—each specimen must be accurately identified to ensure that test results correspond to the correct patient.
- Expired specimen—a specimen that has not been processed or tested within the required time frame may no longer provide reliable results.
- Clotted specimen—the integrity of the specimen is compromised if coagulation occurs, which affects the results, especially for tests that measure certain blood components or functions.
- Insufficient quantity—there must be enough sample volume to perform the necessary tests accurately.
There are several situations involving blood specimen collection and handling that illustrate these points. For instance, when a blood sample is taken from a patient with hemolytic anemia, care must be taken to avoid triggering further breakdown of red blood cells. If blood is collected and then clots during transport or handling, its usefulness for diagnostic purposes can diminish significantly. In a trauma scenario where a patient's blood vessels are severed, managing sample integrity becomes critical for treatment decisions.
In laboratory practice, while harvesting blood components such as serum, a blood sample is often left to sit in a glass tube, allowing blood cells to clot and the serum to separate, which can then be used for analysis. Blood typing tests could also be performed where a technician adds anti-A and anti-B antibodies to distinguish blood groups by checking for agglutination, which is a normal response for certain blood types.