Printable Test Catalog - OU Medicine

Nasopharyngeal wash+NP instructions:
1. Draw up 1-2 mL of sterile saline into a 3-5 mL syringe.
2. Remove the needle from the syringe and put on a butterfly
with a large tubing. Cut the tubing to a length of 2-3".
3. Place the tubing in the nasopharyngeal passage. Inject the
saline rapidly and draw back rapidly.
4. Inject saline and nasal material into the viral transport
medium. (If viral transport medium is not available, the NP+
wash may be added to 1.O mL of trypticase soy broth or
sterile saline.)
5. After or before doing the wash, use a Dacron NP swab to do a
good epithelial cell scraping of the nasopharyngeal area.
Place and cut or break the swab into the same vial as the
wash. (Immunofluorescent testing is done on the epithelial
cells. The combination of both the wash and nasopharyngeal
scraping are essential to obtain enough cells to perform
the test.)
Alternate NP collection instructions:
1. Insert a type 1 (NP) dacron tipped, aluminum-shafted swab
into nasopharyngeal passage for 1 minute.
2. Immediately following the removal of the swab roll the
swab onto the center of a glass slide. Keep the area
confined to the size of a dime. Do not leave any large
clumps of mucous; spread the specimen out evenly over the
dime size area. (This will make a maximum of 2 slides).
Send to the lab immediately in glass slide holders
3. Repeat step 1 and cut or break the swab into viral transport
medium or have the patient gargle 3 mL of sterile saline for
10 seconds; expell the gargle into a sterile container.
This is for a viral culture if the slide collection is poor
or if the FA is negative. The culture is not performed if
the FA is positive.
TUBE OR CONTAINER: Viral transport media
TEST INCLUDES: RSV; Parainfluenza 1, 2, & 3; Influenza A & B;
Adenovirus, Herpes Simplex, Rhinovirus; Enterovirus; and
Cytomegalovirus
TURNAROUND TIME: 1-14 Days
[VVCSL] VIRAL CULTURE STOOL
[VVCTH] VIRAL CULTURE THROAT
[VVCTIS] VIRAL CULTURE TISSUE
[VVCUR] VIRAL CULTURE URINE
[VVCVAG] VIRAL CULTURE VAGINAL
[VVZFAI] VARICELLA ZOSTER FA + CULTURE