How do I prepare serum and saline tube?

If you do not have our proprietary media tubes handy at the moment, please use the serum and saline protocol from the CSU Hemapathology Lab:

  1. Place 1ml of saline (.9%, LRS, Norm R) into a no-additive, white-top or red-top tube (plain tube with no additives or serum separator).
  2. Add .1 ml of serum from the patient, or another healthy animal of the same species, to the saline in the white-top or red-top tube.Aspirate using suction.Gently squirt contents into the tube containing the saline and serum mixture.
  3. Rinse syringe by drawing up saline and serum mixture and gently squirting it back into the tube. Don’t make bubbles.
  4. Repeat aspiration and rinsing multiple times until solution is no longer transparent. A turbid solution usually indicates adequate cellularity for flow cytometry testing.

Other Questions

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When can I expect to receive the sample return boxes I requested online?

You can expect to receive the boxes in 7-12 days via FedEx Ground.

How do I collect an FNA sample?

Disinfect the skin with alcohol (70%) at the planned needle puncture site. Insert a 20-gauge needle (without syringe) into an enlarged lymph node and perform 15 - 20 aspirations using an aggressive “woodpecker style” technique. (Click to Read More)

For patients who already have flow cytometry, can you just run the drug sensitivity profile?

No, we cannot run a drug sensitivity-only service. Please understand our AI-based drug response prediction models require flow cytometry and PARR parameters generated from our own instrumental setting. Even if the patient already has flow cytometry results from another laboratory, we need to run flow and PARR again anyway.

Why should I order ImpriMed services?

ImpriMed offers a unique precision oncology service that helps you to find the best anticancer drugs for your patients. ImpriMed directly tests a panel of commonly used anticancer drugs on your patients’ live cells in our A2LA accredited lab. In addition, we continually collect patient outcomes that are updated via regular follow-up with pet parents. As our database grows, so does the performance of our anticancer drug response predictions and your ability to develop a personalized treatment plan for each pet patient. So, when you order an ImpriMed service, you are actively contributing to our dataset and helping to improve cancer care for your patients and the ImpiMed user community.

Is this test available outside the US? Could I order the test?

Because we require live, fresh, cancer cells within 24-48 hours of doing a fine needle aspiration, we are ONLY offering our services in North America at this time. If you already had an experience of sending biopsy samples to the US in 24-48 hours, we could discuss the work further. Please contact info@imprimedicine.com.