Specimen Type/Volume

1 mL EDTA blood.

Shipping Information

Ship in insulated container with freezer packs.

Collection Protocol

Ideally, testing should be completed within 48 h of blood collection. Staff overtime charges incurred due to the processing or testing of time-sensitive samples arriving late in the day will be billed to the client.

Additional Information

The direct Coombs test is used to detect the presence of antibodies and /or complement bound to red blood cell membranes. The Coombs test can therefore be used to support a diagnosis of immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IHA), and is positive in ~65-75 percent of IHA cases. The microtiter plate method provides a titer result to indicate the strength of the antibody reaction. The presence of auto-agglutination may eliminate the clinical need to perform this test. The Coombs test has no diagnostic value in non-anemic animals as other diseases such as infection and neoplasia can yield a positive test result.