Comparison of Becton Dickinson Vacutainer rapid serum tube with the serum separator tube for routine chemistry and immunoassay tests. Issue 7 (31st March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yan, Ronald; Lou, Amy; Watts, Gail; Tarr, Heather; Smith, Hilary; Kinney, Lois; Chen, Yu
• Is Part Of: Journal of clinical pathology. Volume 67:Issue 7(2014)
• Page Start: 599
• Page End: 604
• Publication Date: 2014-03-31
• Subjects: CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY -- CHEMISTRY -- LABORATORY TESTS -- QUALITY ASSURANCE; Pathology -- Periodicals; Pathology, Molecular -- Periodicals; 616.0705
• DOI: 10.1136/jclinpath-2013-202130
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9746

Abstract

Abstract : Aims: To shorten the clotting time and resolve the delayed clotting or no clotting on specimens from patients on anticoagulant therapy, Becton Dickinson (BD) recently developed the Vacutainer rapid serum tube (RST). The aim of this study was to systematically compare the new RST tube with the widely used serum separator tube (SST) for routine chemistry and immunoassay tests on 3 common analyser platforms. Methods: Blood from 45 people (24 women and 21 men, age 21–77 years) was collected using the SST and RST tubes in sequence. Sera from both tubes were separated and analysed simultaneously for 54, 50, and 10 chemistry and/or immunoassay tests on the Roche Modular, Abbott Architect, and Siemens Centaur analysers, respectively. Results: The results from the RST tube were comparable with those from the SST tube on most analytes. Although the results for a few analytes showed statistically significant differences between the two tubes (p<0.05), the differences had no clinical significance for most assays. Only for parathyroid hormone on the Abbott Architect, the RST tube demonstrated clinical significant bias versus the SST tube (−15.3%, p<0.01). Conclusions: The RST tube provides acceptable performance for routine chemistry and immunoassay tests.