Wet vs Dry Chemistry
This modality mixes sample with reagents in cuvettes and measures transmitted light through the liquid to quantify analytes.
What is absorbance spectrophotometry (wet chemistry)?
The milky interference that scatters light; manage it by client prep and how a reference lab may handle it.
What is lipemia; reduce with 10–12 hours fasting, and reference labs may use ultracentrifugation?
iQC validates these analyzer elements each run to ensure accurate measurements and stable reaction conditions.
What are optics, temperature, hardware/software?
Our “more complete” baseline with electrolytes for sick, preventive, pre-anesthetic, and monitoring cases—often chosen for value.
What is the Comprehensive Diagnostic Profile (CDP)?
Adding this to a competitor’s profile doubles chem run time; in-house we can recheck and adjust dosing in ~15 minutes.
What is total T4 (thyroxine)?
Competitors commonly use this modality, bouncing light off treated pads instead of passing it through liquid.
What is reflectance spectrophotometry (dry chemistry)?
The red-tinged interference; two technique changes to reduce it and how it’s treated at labs.
What is hemolysis; use larger veins/needles and gentle venipuncture; labs flag/quantify and may still report with caveats?
iQC also verifies these rotor-related factors to guarantee proper fluidics and reagent integrity.
What are rotor fluidics and reagent calibration/expiration with QC beads?
The baseline that swaps in AST, chloride, and TCO2 to support acid–base assessment.
What is the Preventive Care Profile Plus (PCPP)?
One timing best practice for canine thyroid rechecks to assess therapeutic peak.
What is 4–6 hours post-pill?
Why our team should champion wet chemistry when discussing “gold/reference standard” methodology.
What is wet chemistry is the reference standard used by commercial/reference labs and VS2?
The yellow interference linked to hyperbilirubinemia; how we and reference labs handle it.
What is icterus; it’s a disease signal, not fixable pre-analytically—VS2 quantifies and may suppress; labs quantify and often report with notes?
This natural change over time is detected early with iQC, prompting calibration before clinicians rely on drifted results.
What is instrument drift?
The concise baseline with ALT/ALP, BUN/CRE, GLU, and TP for young/pre-anesthetic or NSAID monitoring.
What is the Prep Profile II (PPII)?
For phenobarbital monitoring, use these tube types instead of SST to avoid gel binding.
What are plain red top or lithium heparin tubes?
These barcoded components contain analyte-specific reagent beads and calibration factors to ensure accurate results each run.
What are VS2 rotors (with cuvettes and barcode calibration)?
The on-analyzer safeguard that measures HEM/LIP/ICT each run and can suppress unreliable values.
What is Intelligent Quality Control (iQC) with automatic sample integrity checks?
On a VS2 report, this symbol indicates out-of-range, while three tildes indicate suppression for various reasons.
What are “*” for out of reference interval and “~~~” for suppressed results?
Chem 17 plus electrolytes most closely maps to these in-house options.
What are CDP or PCPP (with full electrolytes/TCO2 on PCPP)?
The timing target for phenobarbital levels to ensure seizure coverage at the lowest point.
What is trough (~12 hours post-dose, right before next dose)?
When interference renders a value unreliable, our analyzer does this rather than provide a questionable number with fine print.
What is automatically suppress the analyte/panel and alert the operator (non-report)?
Two pre-analytical actions the clinic can take to reduce redraws due to interference.
What are fasting 10–12 hours and improving collection/handling (correct tube order, timely run, minimize alcohol/suction)?
If suppression occurs, this report provides run-specific technical codes and an estimated value to aid technical support review.
What is the Troubleshooting Report (view/print from the analyzer; estimated values are not for clinical decisions)?
Beyond dogs, cats, and horses, these alternative species are approved for use on the CDP rotor.
What are ferrets and rabbits?
When running phenobarbital levels, always include these to assess medication effects.
What are liver enzymes (e.g., ALP, ALT, GGT, TBIL)?