1. Which sample tube should be used for routine glucose determination?
- Author
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Bonetti G, Cancelli V, Coccoli G, Piccinelli G, Brugnoni D, Caimi L, and Carta M
- Subjects
- Adult, Biomarkers blood, Blood Chemical Analysis methods, Blood Chemical Analysis standards, Buffers, Citric Acid chemistry, Equipment Design, Female, Glycolysis, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Reference Standards, Reproducibility of Results, Sodium Fluoride chemistry, Specimen Handling methods, Specimen Handling standards, Temperature, Time Factors, Young Adult, Blood Chemical Analysis instrumentation, Blood Glucose analysis, Specimen Handling instrumentation
- Abstract
Background: Glucose is one of the most frequently requested analytes in clinical laboratory. Blood glucose analysis is affected from in vitro glycolysis. In order to determine the most suitable blood collection tube for this purpose we have compared different tubes: sodium fluoride, lithium heparin, sodium fluoride/citrate buffer containing tubes and serum with clot activator tube for the measurement of glucose when the tube has been kept at room temperature (RT) for up to 4h., Methods: Venous blood was collected from 49 healthy volunteers into Sarstedt S-Monovettes for glucose analysis. Reference plasma glucose was determined in a lithium heparin tube and immediately placed in an ice/water slurry. Within 10min it was centrifuged at 4°C and plasma was separated from the blood cells. Samples have been preserved at RT for 1, 2 and 4h after drawing. Glucose has been determined using a hexokinase method., Results: Glucose levels tested in a serum with clot activator tube, in lithium heparin and in sodium fluoride/sodium EDTA tubes when compared with lithium-heparin reference plasma did not meet the desirable bias for glucose (±1.8%) when kept at RT for up to 4h. GlucoEXACT tubes, when corrected by the Sarsted recommended factor of 1.16, showed a mean (95% CI) bias of +0.96% (0.45-1.47) at 1h, +1.40% (0.88-1.93) at 2h and +0.95% (0.44-1.46) at 4h, reaching the analytical goal for the desirable bias., Conclusions: Samples collected into GlucoEXACT tubes containing sodium fluoride/citrate buffer liquid mixture are equivalent to those collected in reference plasma tubes avoiding glycolysis completely and within a 4h delay in plasma separation., (Copyright © 2015 Primary Care Diabetes Europe. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2016
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