Folate, Serum




Test Mnemonic

SERFOL

CPT Codes

  • 82746 - QTY (1)

LOINC ®

2284-8

Aliases

  • Folic Acid

Performing Laboratory

Cleveland Clinic Laboratories


Specimen Requirements

Volume Type Container Collect Temperature Transport Temperature Special Instructions
1 mLSerumSST (Gold) Centrifuge and refrigerate.Submit in original tube or aliquot into CCL aliquot tube

Minimum Specimen Requirements

Volume Type Container Collect Temperature Transport Temperature Special Instructions
0.5 mL     

Stability

Environmental Condition Description
Ambient2 hours
Refrigerated2 days
Frozen4 weeks

Days Performed

Sun - Sat

Turnaround Time

8 hours

Methodology

Name Description
Electro Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (ECLIA) 

Reference Range

Folate, Serum
Sex Age From Age To Type Range Range Unit
       Normal> 4.7ng/mL

Special Info

Note: Hemolysis may significantly increase folate values due to high concentrations of folate in red blood cells. Therefore, hemolyzed samples are not suitable for use in this assay. Samples for folate determinations should be collected from fasting persons. Hemolyzed specimens will be rejected. Patients taking a biotin dose of up to 5 mg/day should refrain from taking biotin for 4 hours prior to sample collection. Patients taking a biotin dose of 5 to 10 mg/day should refrain from taking biotin for 8 hours prior to sample collection. Patients taking a biotin dose > 10 mg/day should consult with their physician or the laboratory prior to having a sample taken. Clinicians should consider biotin interference as a source of error, when clinically suspicious of the laboratory result.

Clinical Info

Detection of folate deficiency; monitoring folate therapy.

Clinical Limitation

A result of > 20 ng/mL is not necessarily indicative of a pathologic or treatable condition; it reflects a limitation of the test methodology. This assay’s reference range is 4.8 to 24.2 ng/mL. This test is suitable for detection of folate deficiency. Reference: Folate III (Folate III) [package insert V 1.0 English]. Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN; November 2015.