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Copeptin
minimum sample volume required ~ 5ml
Test Code: COP
Other acceptable tube types
Lithium heparin (pale green), EDTA (purple) also acceptable
Special instructions
Usually available for endocrinology patients only.
Sent away
to Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle
Contact Laboratory before requesting
Reference range
No single reference range is applicable as copeptin varies according to plasma osmolality in normal individuals. An interpretive comment will be included with each report.
Turnaround Time
28
days
Department: Biochemistry
Clinical Application
Copeptin is the C-terminal peptide of the prohormone for AVP (arginine vasopressin) and is produced by the posterior pituitary on an equimolar basis with AVP. It can be used to diagnose Diabetes Insipidus (DI).
Whilst AVP is difficult to measure due to pre-analytical variance, copeptin is stable and can be measured as a surrogate of AVP. Compared to the water deprivation test, copeptin has greater diagnostic accuracy than the water-deprivation test when measured during a hypertonic saline test.
