D-Dimer Quantitation

Adult: 2 mL

Paediatric: 1 ml

- Gently invert the tubes several times to prevent clotting. Clotted specimen is not suitable for testing.

- To collect blood to the designate marking. Over or under filling will compromise the test results.

- When using a winged blood collection set for venipuncture and a coagulation tube is the first tube drawn, draw a discard tube first.

- When obtaining specimens from indwelling lines that may contain heparin, the line should be flushed with 5mL of saline; and the first 5mL of blood or 6-times the line volume (dead space volume of the catheter) be drawn off and discarded before the coagulation tube is filled.

- For those samples collected from a normal saline lock (capped off venous port) twice the dead space volume of the catheter and extension set should be discarded.

Routine: 2 - 3 hrs

Urgent tests requiring a shorter turnaround time can be requested by contacting the laboratory haematologist-on-call.

Coloured plasma may interfere with chromogenic testing. Samples which are haemolysed, lipaemic or icteric will be rejected.

This test may be used to exclude deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (DVT/PE) if the D-Dimer result is < 0.50 ug/ml FEU, in conjunction with a low or moderate pre-test probability using a validated score e.g Well's criteria.