Mercury Tri-Test and Blood Metals Panel

Overview:

Mercury Tri Test and Blood Metals Panel
Quicksilver Scientific is a CLIA certified laboratory offering mercury speciation and blood metal testing for human health. We use state-of-the-art testing technology, including patented mercury speciation technology, to give the most accurate and reliable metal testing availability today. The Mercury Tri-Test is the only clinical testing suite that utilize blood, hair, and urine to measure both exposure and excretion rate. The Blood Metals Panel screens a broad range of nutrient and toxic metals to show elevated exposures to toxic metals or imbalances of nutrient metals in the whole blood.

Blood Collection (Mercury Tri-Test and/or Blood Metals Panel)
DO NOT eat seafood or fish products for 72 hours prior to collecting your blood sample. Fish oils are OK.
(Please note, for patients doing the Mercury Tri-Test – your urine and blood samples must be taken within 48 hours of each other.)

What you will need:

•    EDTA preserved vacutainer blood tube(s) – has rounded bottom and dark blue cap
•    Sample label(s)
•    Absorbent cloth(s)
•    Biohazard zip-top specimen bag

•    Fill tube at least halfway (minimum 2 mL per tube) **We only need 1 blood sample for the Mercury Tri-Test or 1 blood sample for the Blood Metals Panel. If you are doing both tests, we need 2 samples.**
•    Wrap the tube in the absorbent cloth provided and place the wrapped tube into the biohazard zip-top bag.

DO NOT spin down or freeze blood.  No ice packs are needed for shipping. If you aren’t shipping the sample back to us on the day it is drawn, please store it in the refrigerator.

Urine Collection (Mercury Tri-Test only)

Persons who are menstruating: you must wait until menstruation has ceased before collecting your urine samples.

What you will need:

•    Sample label
•    Urine collection beaker
•    Urine sample test tube – conical tube with screw top
•    Absorbent cloth
•    Biohazard zip-top specimen bag

Procedure:

1.    Take your urine sample, preferably from your first morning emission. Use the plastic collection beaker to collect a midstream sample (not the beginning or end of the flow).
2.    Transfer a portion of your sample into the urine sample test tube. The sample should fill up the tube to between lines marked 9 and 11. DO NOT fill the sample test tube to the very top. Cap the sample test tube tightly, making sure the cap is not crooked (mis-threaded) or leaking.
3.    Write your name, date of birth, and sample date on the sample label provided. Affix the label on the test tube.
4.    Wrap the test tube in the absorbent cloth, and place the wrapped vial into the biohazard zip-top bag.

Hair Collection (Mercury Tri-Test Only)

What you will need:

•    Scissors or shears
•    Sample label
•    Hair collection bag

Procedure:

1.    Write your name, date of birth, and sample date on the sample label provided, and affix it to the hair bag.
2.    Pinch a section of hair at the base of the back of your head. The amount of hair should be about ½” wide when flattened, between 100-200 strands of hair.
3.    Cut the hair as close to the scalp as possible. You may want to ask a friend or family member to help you with this step.
4.    Trim the sample so that the only portion of hair going into the sample bag is the 1-inch section closest to your skin. (The sample should be about 1 inch in length, and ½ inch in width when laid flat. If your hair is too short, please double the width to about 300-400 strands of hair, or about half a gram in weight. (There must be as sufficient amount of hair sampled for analysis. Please see the photos above.)
5.    Place the section of hair (1 inch closest to the scalp) into the hair sample bag and seal it closed.

Note: DO NOT send a hair sample that has been treated with a perm; all other hair treatments, including dye, are acceptable. If you do not have enough scalp hair or you do have a perm, you can substitute with pubic/body hair.

**Available in the US only**