We've been using a pneumatic tube system for a few years now. On occasions
specimens are accompanied by ice and, provided the minigrip bag is sealed,
there is no problem. Sometimes cool packs are also used. In general, no
journey takes more than a few minutes, so we don't recommend cooling.
On another tangent, there was a poster at a FOCUS meeting a few years ago
which suggested that the pO2 was altered by transporting through a pneumatic
tube system. My colleague, Peter Berry, attempted to confirm or refute
this. He arranged for double specimens to be taken from the surgical
intensive care unit patients (SITU). SITU was chosen because they regularly
send gases and the specimens come from a central line, so it was thought
that a second specimen could be obtained with minimum inconvenience to the
patient. One was placed in a minigrip bag, as usual. The other was sealed
in a large polypropylene test tube which is sealed with an air tight lid -
these are translucent and we use them to contain high risk blood specimens
in the centrifuge. The first day, there was a fairly large difference
between the pO2 values. However, on the second day, the difference was
reversed. When Peter went to SITU to discuss this, he asked which specimen
had been drawn first from the central line. Although no one said anything,
he noted "knowing looks" being exchanged between staff members and had the
distinct impression that the first specimen was contaminated with the
heparinised saline which was used to keep the line open. After this
conversation in SITU, the differences appeared to disappear and everyone
lost interest in the project.
Yours Elliott Simpson
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr David G Williams [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 November 2000 13:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Blood gases
On a slight tangent to the blood gases on ice thread, we are expecting our
new
shiny pneumatic tube delivery system to go live any day now. We currently
request that blood gases be sent down on ice (soomething we will have to
review!). Does anybody have any experience of sending samples on ice through
such a system?
Dr D G Williams
FRCPath
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