Sample Shipping and Handling -2023
Clinical Laboratory Order Form:
Make sure the form is completely filled out. Please include the physician and patient information, the specimen type, the requested tests, and the payment information. Samples received without an accompanying form of payment will not be processed.
Specimen Collection Containers:
Please mark all samples with the patients’ full names and the date the samples were collected. We will not process unmarked samples, NO EXCEPTIONS.
** Biopsies in paraffin blocks can be shipped as is in a sealed biohazard bag. Please write instructions if you want the remaining biopsy samples to be shipped back to you after our lab testing. Also, it is essential to indicate whether the paraffin block samples should be tested individually or pooled. The cost will be higher if samples are tested individually.
Shipping Directions:
- Place the tubes in the Styrofoam box.
- Place samples in the provided Biohazard shipping bag (orange clinical pack provided by FedEx designed specifically for shipping clinical samples).
- Ship samples at room temperature. If the weather is hot, then ship on ice packs to prevent sample degradation in transit.
- Send samples to:
Clongen Laboratories, LLC
211 Perry Parkway, Suite 6
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
If a FedEx label is send to you by Clongen Labs, please use this label to ship the specimen. The label should be taped on the box or envelope used to ship the specimen.
Shipping fees:
- Regular physician: No shipping fees
- New doctors or patients:
- If test(s) cost $400.00 or more: No fee for test kit and shipping label
- If test(s) cost less than $400.00: $50.00 for test kit and shipping label
- $25.00 for FedEx shipping label (test kit not included)
- Patients are free to use their own shipping services if they prefer.
For questions about other specimen type or packaging please call us at 877-CLONGEN (256-6436) or 301-916-0173.
Instructions on the use and shipping of inoculated enrichment media
The enrichment media are intended to increase the copy number of specific pathogens and thereby improve the test sensitivity especially for pathogens that are more likely to colonize tissues and do not circulate in high copy numbers in the blood stream. When inoculated with the patient sample (whether is whole blood, tissue biopsy or a swab from a specific infection site), the enrichment ingredients enhance the growth of different pathogens and substantially increase the chances to detect low copy pathogens by Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) following a 10 day incubation period.
We currently offer Pre-Enrichment followed by PCR for the following organisms:
- Mycoplasma species
- Bartonella species
- Babesia species
- Borrelia species
Cost: $125 in addition to the cost to run the test per organism.
Tissue Biopsies: a small piece of the tissue biopsy should be transferred to the enrichment medium tube. The tube should be recapped tight and shipped back to the laboratory.
Swabs: if the specimen is collected from an infection site using a collection swab, the swab should be inserted into the tube, broken off and left in the medium. The tube should be recapped tight and shipped back to the laboratory.
Please do not refrigerate the media once inoculated. Room temperature storage is adequate.
All tubes inoculated with patient specimens must be labeled with the full patient’s name and date of collection. Unlabeled tubes will not be accepted, NO EXCEPTIONS.
Feel free to contact the laboratory if you have any questions.