Special Collections is 12 of the 100 scored items on the NHA CPT exam. Answer 10 exam style questions on glucose tolerance, drug levels and blood alcohol and see exactly which concepts would cost you points on test day.
Start the 10 questions →For a legal blood alcohol draw, which is required?
These questions cover blood alcohol, newborn screening, glucose tolerance, therapeutic phlebotomy and donation. Each one shows the correct answer and why every other option is wrong, so a miss tells you exactly what to review before the NHA CPT.
Prefer to read first? Every question from the practice set above, with the correct answer and why each wrong option is wrong.
Answer: B. Legal specimens need a documented chain of custody, a nonalcohol antiseptic, and tamper-evident sealing per protocol.
Why not A: Alcohol pads can falsely raise the result.
Why not C: Patients do not collect their own blood.
Why not D: Unlabeled specimens are never acceptable.
Exam tactic: Legal alcohol: custody form, no alcohol prep.
Answer: D. Collection after 24 hours of age, ideally before discharge, allows accurate screening for conditions such as PKU that depend on feeding and metabolism, per state protocol.
Why not A: Very early samples can miss conditions such as PKU.
Why not B: Waiting a month delays treatment.
Why not C: Screening is done on all newborns.
Exam tactic: Newborn screen: after 24 hours.
Answer: A. Food, smoking, gum and exercise can alter glucose levels, so the patient stays at rest and does not eat or smoke during the test. Water is usually allowed per protocol.
Why not B: Coffee and its sugar or caffeine can affect results.
Why not C: Exercise lowers glucose.
Why not D: Food changes glucose levels and invalidates the test.
Exam tactic: GTT: sit, wait, nothing by mouth but water.
Answer: A. Therapeutic phlebotomy removes a unit of blood to treat conditions such as hemochromatosis or polycythemia, on a provider's order.
Why not B: Typing is a lab test.
Why not C: Donation is for transfusion to others.
Why not D: Diagnostic draws are for testing.
Exam tactic: Therapeutic = removing blood as treatment.
Answer: D. Donor bags contain an anticoagulant preservative solution, and gentle mixing during collection prevents clotting.
Why not A: Oxygen is not added.
Why not B: Separation happens later by centrifugation.
Why not C: Mixing is not for warming; it distributes the anticoagulant.
Exam tactic: Donor bag: keep it mixed.
Answer: A. Infants have small total blood volumes, so repeated collections can cause iatrogenic anemia. Facilities set limits on blood drawn per day and per month.
Why not B: It is a safety measure, not a billing one.
Why not C: Clotting speed is not the reason.
Why not D: Infants have very little blood volume.
Exam tactic: Small bodies, small volumes.
Answer: C. A good smear is thick at the start and thins out into a feathered edge, where cells are examined in a single layer.
Why not A: The smear does not cover the whole slide.
Why not B: A smear is made from one drop spread evenly.
Why not D: Thick areas cannot be examined.
Exam tactic: Look for the feathered edge.
Answer: B. Drug levels change after each dose, so peak and trough results are only meaningful when collection and dose times are known and documented.
Why not A: Timing does not affect hemolysis.
Why not C: Tube choice is set by the test.
Why not D: The information is needed for clinical interpretation, not just records.
Exam tactic: Drug level: record dose time and draw time.
Answer: D. Cold agglutinin and cryoglobulin specimens are kept at body temperature until serum is separated, often in a prewarmed tube and heat block.
Why not A: Refrigeration causes the same problem as ice.
Why not B: Freezing destroys the specimen.
Why not C: Chilling makes the antibodies bind cells and falsely lower results.
Exam tactic: Cold agglutinin: keep it warm.
Answer: C. Specimens that may be used as legal evidence, such as forensic blood alcohol or court-ordered testing, require chain of custody documentation for every handoff.
Why not A: Routine chemistry does not need it.
Why not B: Routine hematology does not need chain of custody.
Why not D: Routine monitoring does not need chain of custody.
Exam tactic: Legal use = chain of custody.
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