Evaluation of Blood Chemistry Stability using Vacuum Blood Collection Tube

Abstract

The storage process and the time spent in transporting the specimens to the laboratory has resulted in inaccurate values. The purpose of this study was to determine the stability of glucose, BUN (blood urea nitrogen), creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in various blood collection tubes, including Gel&Clot, Clot Activator, Heparin, Sodium Fluoride (NaF) and Gel&Heparin. Blood samples were collected from 90 volunteers and centrifuged for measuring chemicals at time  0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 48 and 72 hours. The data were compared with immediately measured values at 0 hour, allowable total error (TEa) and the significant change limits (SCL) range. The results showed that the stability of glucose in NaF tube at 72 hours were not different from those of the immediately measured samples (p = 0.270), and the values did not exceed SCL. The stability in Gel&Clot, Clot Activator and Heparin tubes  were 24, 4 and 4 hours (p =0.015, 0.001 and 0.004, respectively)  and the results were in SCL within 48, 4 and 4 hours, respectively. The stability in Gel&Heparin tube of BUN, creatinine and ALT at 48 hours did not exceed SCL and were not different from those of the immediately measured samples (p = 0.067, 0.161 and 1.000, respectively).  ALT were in SCL but different from those of the immediately measured samples at 24 hours (p < 0.001).