Distinguish between hemolyzed and lipemic samples and their effects on results.

Prepare for the CAMLPR Specimen Collection Competency Test. Practice with diverse question sets including multiple-choice and flashcards. Each question includes hints and explanations to help you become proficient before the exam.

Understanding how sample quality affects lab results is key here. Hemolyzed samples appear pink to red in plasma or serum because red blood cells have ruptured and released hemoglobin. That release can distort measurements because intracellular components spill into the fluid, so certain analytes can be falsely elevated or decreased depending on the assay. Potassium is a well-known example—it's high inside red cells, so hemolysis raises its measured level. Iron measurements can also be affected by this intracellular release.

Lipemic samples look milky or turbid due to a high lipid content, typically triglycerides. That cloudiness causes optical interference in many assays that rely on colorimetric or photometric readings, leading to inaccurate results. Lipemia can also influence measurements by volume displacement in the reaction mix, further skewing some tests.

So the best description is that hemolyzed samples yield pink/red plasma and can falsely elevate or reduce certain analytes (like potassium and iron), while lipemic samples are milky and cause spectrophotometric interference, producing inaccurate readings for some assays.