Single Site Blood Culture Sampling for Adults
April 09, 2026
Single-site blood culture sampling is now recommended as the standard approach for adult patients requiring blood cultures, except where specific clinical indications necessitate sampling from separate sites. Single-site sampling involves collecting the full recommended blood volume from a single peripheral venipuncture and inoculating all bottles. “Separate-site sampling” should only be…
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Platform Change Infectious Serology Assays
March 24, 2026
Please note that several infectious serology assays performed at Pathlab are migrating from the Abbott Alinity platform to the Beckman DxI9000 and Diasorin Liaison testing platforms. These changes will take place over the next couple of weeks: New Infectious Serology Testing Platforms Table The new assays have all been verified by Pathlab for the purposes of quality assurance. HIV, syphilis, and…
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Indications for Sputum Culture in the Community Setting
March 13, 2026
Sputum culture is in general a low value microbiology test, due to poor sensitivity and specificity in identifying bacterial pathogens. In addition, the vast majority of results do not change patient management. We analysed 3200 sputum samples between July 2023 and June 2024. 6% of the total samples grew a respiratory pathogen that was resistant to amoxycillin, and only 0.7% of the sample cohort…
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HPV Swabbing
March 12, 2026
The transition from the buffer containing HPV swab tube to the dry tube has gone well, but there are couple of important points to note about breaking the swab into the tube. You MUST break the swab at the indicated pink break line on the swab shaft as indicated in the photograph. HPV Break Point Please do NOT cut off the swab above this break point for two reasons: The swab will become stuck in…
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Liquid Based Cytology (LBC) Sample Collection & Labelling
January 19, 2026
We are receiving a significant number of LBC samples with either labelling issues or the samples collection devices being incorrectly placed in the wrong well. We ask please to ensure the following processes are used to ensure accurate and consistent sample collection. Labelling Labels need to be small enough to fit on the SurePath LBC sample vials without flags or tags
hanging from the vial. The…
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