Similar experience in Oxford with use of syringes + Vacutainers! The
air tube system gets the blame!
Jonathan Kay
...........
On Thursday, January 31, 2002, at 09:40 , Mainwaring-Burton Richard
(RGZ) wrote:
> We have a tube system from all locations in the hospital and
> consistently
> get a higher proportion of haemolysed samples from A&E. We did an
> extensive
> study in an attempt to identify relevant factors and were confounded
> totally.
> We checked : syringe/vacutainer
> needle/venflon
> nurse/doctor/student
> tube/manual delivery
> and there was no correlation anywhere
> What we did find is that the majority of doctors taking blood use a
> syringe
> to extract the blood and then stick the needle into the top of the
> vacutainer !!
> It seems they think the evacuation is just to get the right volume in
> the
> tube. However this practice was still not relevant to the study.
> This seems to be standard practice and I am sure leads to haemolysis,
> not to
> mention negation of the 'savings in syringe costs' predicted with most
> evacuated systems.
> No doubt the dual function evac or not systems would be beneficial in
> this
> regard.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bertholf, Roger [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 21:53
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: transport, and GP patients with spuriously high serum
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Wilmot, Rachel
>> Could it be the Li Hep samples from A/E travelled to the lab
>> via a tube
>> transport system??
>
> ED physicians in a facility to which our lab is connected via tube
> transport
> system have frequently suggested the tube as a likely reason for the
> high
> number of their specimens we reject due to hemolysis. We consistently
> reject
> between 1 and 2% of specimens from this location due to hemolysis,
> while the
> rejection rate for the ED located within our building is usually around
> 1%
> (specimens are not tube-transported). We compared specimen rejection
> data
> for several non-ED units, including an intensive care unit also
> connected
> via tube, and found that the rejection rate for hemolysis was
> consistently
> around 0.2%. So I have not been convinced that tube transport, at least
> in
> our facility, increases hemolysis (or, as a consequence, potassium).
>
> Roger
>
> Roger L. Bertholf, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Pathology
> Director of Clinical Chemistry & Toxicology
> University of Florida Health Science Center/Jacksonville
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