Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories

Collect

Draw one green top (sodium or lithium heparin) or lavender top (EDTA) vacutainer tube.

Yellow top (ACD soln A or B )tubes are also acceptable but tube must be appropriately filled (because of liquid anticoagulant) to preserve sample integrity.

Specimen Preparation

Handling: Do not centrifuge! Keep at room temp (18-22°C).

Preferred volume: 4 mL

Pediatric Collection

Minimum volume: 1 mL blood

Unacceptable Conditions

Frozen, clotted, hemolyzed, spun down, citrate anticoagulant (blue top)

Storage Transport Temp

Maintain and transport specimens at room temperature (18-22°C).
Ship specimens Priority Overnight via Fed Ex in container sufficiently insulated to avoid temperature extremes (<10°C and >37°C).

Stability

48 hours at room temperature (18-22°C).

Notes

CBC with Differential results from within 3 days of draw must also be provided or a lavender top included with required specimen to run CBC at ADx.
Samples are accepted Monday through noon on Friday.

**This is NOT an NK Cell Function assay**.

Performed

Tue-Fri

Methodology

Flow Cytometry

Reported

2-4 days

Department

Immunology Lab - Phenotyping Assays

Synonyms

Natural Killer Cell (CD16/56);CD16/56 Cells;Natural Killer Cell Marker;Flow Cytometry (CD16/56);NK Cell enumeration;NK Marker (CD16/56)

Related Tests

TBSBS, CD3SB, CD48, CD4M

Reference Interval

Lymphocyte Subset Normal Range Chart

Interpretation

This test is useful for assessing NK (natural killer) cell percentages and numbers and it assists in the evaluation of immunodeficiency.

CPT Code

86357