What does PARR tell me about my patient’s specimen?

PARR, which stands for PCR for Antigen Receptor Rearrangements, is used to discriminate between lymphoma/leukemia and reactive/inflammatory conditions when cytology is equivocal. Our canine PARR assay detects the expansion of B-cell cancer clones by amplifying the VJ region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene (IgH) and detects the expansion of T-cell cancer clones by amplifying a region in the T-cell receptor gamma chain gene.

How does ImpriMed ensure the quality and reliability of its immunophenotyping services?

ImpriMed's immunophenotyping services were developed in collaboration with experienced DVMs and are supported by established clinical/laboratory expertise and publications. Our immunophenotyping services are accredited by A2LA and operate under a robust quality management system with ongoing quality control, performance monitoring, and periodic review and update of our assays with our DVM advisors. Our services are routinely benchmarked against established veterinary reference laboratories and show a very high level of concordance.

We have a case coming in today we would really like to submit but don’t have transport media tubes; is there any other method we could do in order to submit a sample, such as aspirating and placing it in tube with serum?

Please use serum and saline that you would normally do when you send to other reference laboratories.

Can the blood sample be frozen or refrigerated before shipping?

The blood sample can be refrigerated before shipping. Please DO NOT freeze the blood sample.

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.

If the blood clots can the ImpriMed test still be run?

Blood clots can prevent our ability to run our tests. Very small clots may not be a problem, but in general, clotted blood is not ideal. That is why we ask that doctors send blood in an EDTA or heparin tube.