Urinalysis and Body Fluids 6th Edition by Majorie DiLorenzo, Susan Strasinger

Exercise 23

A cloudy specimen received in the laboratory may have been preserved using:

A. Boric acid

B. Chloroform

C. Refrigeration

D. Formalin

Step 1 of 2

Cloudy specimen:

A cloudy specimen contains bacteria, crystals, blood, mucous and epithelial cells.

• For example, urine turns into cloudy because of decomposition or due to bacterial infection.

• In short, the cloudy specimen will not be in fresh condition.

Preservation of specimen:

• The specimen must be preserved for the best analysis and to avoid the infection of pathogens.

• Various preservative methods like refrigeration, adding preservatives are applied in laboratory.

• Boric acid is a preservative. It cut downs bacterial growth during transportation of specimens.

Therefore, preservative used in the cloudy specimen received in laboratory is “boric acid”. Hence, the correct answer is option.