Specimen Handling

Patient preparation: Patient should liberalize (not restrict) sodium intake. The following medications should be held for 4 weeks prior to testing or for as long as is clinically feasible: spironolactone, eplerenone, amiloride, triamterene, potassium-wasting diuretics, confectionary licorice, or chewing tobacco. Please refer to the 2016 Endocrine Society Practice Guidelines for more information (Funder et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2016).

Collection Instructions: Collect blood midmorning, after the patient has been up (sitting, standing, or walking) for at least 2 hours and then seated for 5-15 min. State whether the patient was supine or upright when the blood was drawn. Specify site of specimen i.e. peripheral vein, adrenal, etc. Write your initials, date and time of collection on the collection label or requisition.

Laboratory Staff Instructions: Serum free from hemolysis collected with or without gel separator. Separate serum from cells within 2 hours of collection. Repeated freezing and thawing of samples should be avoided.

Rejection Criteria: Highly lipemic or hemolyzed samples, unlabeled or samples of non sufficient quantity.

Stability: Aldosterone is Stable 1-2 days at 2-8°C and up to 4 months frozen at -20C.

Transportation: Send sample to core lab as soon as possible.