Type of sample/quantity required: at least 0.5 ml of serum
IMPORTANT: do not use tubes containing separator gel for sampling, as they may cause false reduction.
The assessment of phenobarbitalmia should be performed 2-3 weeks after treatment has started, in order to achieve a relatively constant plasma concentration. The blood peak occurs approximately 4-6 hours after oral administration. Phenobarbital is normally administered orally every 12 hours. The first test for phenobarbitalmia should be verified using two samples, taken 4-6 hours (blood peak) and 12 hours after administration of the drug. For example, the first sample can be taken in the morning immediately before the tablet is administered, and the second sample 5 hours later. This makes it possible to estimate the pharmacokinetics with a good degree of accuracy, thus highlighting the proportion of patients (approximately 10%) for whom taking phenobarbital every 12 hours is not sufficient to cover the whole day. The level of drug can then be determined from a single sample collected 8-12 hours after oral administration.

Storage/shipping methods: serum must be stored and shipped at refrigeration temperature;

Reception days: every day from Monday to Saturday;
Examination/reporting days: every day from Monday to Saturday;
Waiting times: reports are issued on the same day as the samples are received.