Best Practices for Achieving Optimal Specimen Quality and Accurate Test Results

An example is blood and bacteria testing in routine urinalysis. A false-positive result for blood can be obtained when a specimen contains infection-causing bacteria. The microbial peroxidase activity can cause a false-positive reaction for blood. In this case, microscopic analysis will verify the presence of bacteria and possibly the lack of red blood cells. This will confirm that the response for blood on the reagent strip is inaccurate.