Osmolality Serum
Sample type
Serum or plasma
Uses
Check the balance between water and certain chemicals in the blood.
Find out if you have swallowed a poison such as antifreeze or rubbing alcohol. Help diagnose dehydration, a condition in which your body loses too much fluid. Help diagnose overhydration, a condition in which your body retains too much fluid.
Help diagnose diabetes insipidus, a condition that affects the kidneys and can lead to dehydration
Precautions
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State patient’s age on the request form.
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Pediatric: Blood drawn from heelstick for capillary.
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Separate serum or plasma from cells as soon as possible after clot formation.
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Transfer specimen to a plastic transport tube.
Interfering factors
Dehydration or overhydration
Heart failure
Liver disease
Kidney disease
Gross hemolysis
Gross lipemia
Pre-analytical errors
- Clotted specimen; gross hemolysis
The corrective action
The sample must be rejected and another sample be obtained
- Hemolysis or Lipemia or Icterus sample
The corrective action
The sample must be rejected and another sample be obtained.
Post-analytical errors
I. write the wrong name in the report or the wrong results.
The corrective action
If the report is not delivered to the patient and this error is discovered, the correct result or the correct name must be written, but if the report is delivered to the patient, you must communicate with him, apologies to him, and tell him that an error has occurred and replace it with the correct report.
II. If the patient’s gender is written wrong in the report, the reference range was written incorrectly
The corrective action
If the report is not delivered to the patient and this error is discovered, fix it, but if the report is delivered to the patient, apologies to him, tell him that an error has occurred, and replace it with the correct report. And next time, be careful when you write down the gender and reference range
Reference range
Neonatal: may be as low as 266 mOsm/kg; 0 to 60 years: 275−295 mOsm/kg; 61 years and older: 280−301 mOsm/kg