A type of REQUEST FOR DIAGNOSTIC TEST.
A request for one or more investigations within a PATHOLOGY SPECIALTY, from a single sample, or group of related samples, taken from a PATIENT or other human or non-human source and sent to a pathology laboratory at one time.
If investigations within more than one PATHOLOGY SPECIALTY are requested from the same sample a REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION for each PATHOLOGY SPECIALTY will be recorded accordingly.
Examples of REQUESTS FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION are as follows:
a. | In chemical pathology, each sample of blood accompanied by a REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION for any number of different serum assays constitutes a single request |
b. | In haematology, a REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION on a single sample of blood from one patient could include a number of tests, for example, a haemoglobin estimation, differential white cell count and a sickle cell test |
c. | In histopathology, several pieces of tissue, such as multiple jejunal biopsies or a breast with associated tissues, whether dissected or not, constitute one REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION |
d. | In immunopathology a sample of blood with a request for an auto- antibody screen and immune complement assays constitutes a single REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION |
e. | In microbiology, one or more throat swabs from a patient, requiring identification of the pathogenic organism with its antibiotic susceptibility, constitutes a single REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION |
Further clarification of the definition of a single REQUEST FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION is that a single request can only be associated with a number of samples if each sample is:
a. | Of the same type |
b. | Taken from the patient at the same time, i.e. within a few minutes |
c. | Received by a laboratory at the same time, AND |
d. | Analysed (has one or more tests performed on it) by the same laboratory |
This class is also known by these names:
Context | Alias |
---|---|
plural | REQUESTS FOR PATHOLOGY INVESTIGATION |