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Patient instruction sheet · Tests and general care

Urine, stool and sputum samples at home

How to collect a sample the laboratory can use

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For anyone given a sample container to fill at home.

Drawing: Sample containers, a sealed bag, and soap and water for the hands.
Sample containers, a sealed bag, and soap and water for the hands.

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Sample needed

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Midstream urine sample

  1. Wash your hands. Write your name and the date on the container. Do not touch the inside of the container or the lid.
  2. Women: hold the skin folds apart. Men: pull back the foreskin.
  3. Pass the first part of the urine into the toilet.
  4. Without stopping the flow, catch the middle part in the container.
  5. Pass the rest into the toilet. Close the lid tightly.

The first urine of the morning is best. Bring it within 1 hour. If you cannot, keep it in a sealed bag in the fridge and bring it within 24 hours.

Stool sample

  1. Pass urine first, so that urine does not mix with the stool.
  2. Pass stool onto clean paper or into a clean, dry container. It must not touch the water in the toilet.
  3. With the spoon in the lid, take a piece about the size of a walnut. If the stool is liquid, fill about one third of the container.
  4. Close the lid tightly, seal it in the bag, and wash your hands with soap.

Bring it as soon as possible, the same day. For a test for hidden blood, ask the laboratory whether you need to avoid any food or medicine beforehand.

Sputum sample

  1. Collect it early in the morning, before eating or brushing. Rinse your mouth with plain water first.
  2. Go to an open, airy place away from other people. Never in a closed room or a toilet.
  3. Breathe in deeply 2 or 3 times, then cough hard from deep in the chest.
  4. Spit the sputum straight into the container. At least half a teaspoon (2 ml) is needed.
  5. Close the lid tightly and wash your hands.

Good sputum is thick and yellowish. Watery saliva or mucus from the nose cannot be tested. For a tuberculosis test, two samples are needed: one given on the spot and one from the early morning.

Label every container with your name and the date and time of collection. An unlabelled sample cannot be tested.

Questions about this sheet? Call Caspian Healthcare reception on +91 89193 41154. A doctor is on duty at all hours for problems that are not critical. Caspian has no emergency department: in an emergency call 108.

Where this comes from

Prepared by Caspian Healthcare from the sources above. Last reviewed October 2026. General information: your own doctor's written instructions come first.