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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden · 2 2016
Stability of samples, during transport from General
Practices based on pre-analytical goals
Erling Birkemose
1
, Esther Jensen
2
, Per Grinsted
3
, Ivan Brandslund
4
, Flemming Østerby
3
1
Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital
2
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Nordsjaellands Hospital, Hillerød
3
General Practitioners in Odense
4
Laboratory Centre, Lillebaelt Hospital, Vejle, Denmark
Introduction
Still many blood samples for tests at the hospital labo-
ratories are provided by General Practitioner’s offices
(GP’s) and different studies have explored how it is
possible to use whole blood samples sent from GP’s
to hospital laboratories for analyses without compro-
mising the quality of test results.
This paper describes investigations of the trans-
port of samples from General Practitioners (GPs) to
the Hospital Laboratory by courier. In two former
counties in Denmark courier transport was establis-
hed with two daily collections and later all GPs in the
Region of Southern Denmark have the possibility of
sending patient samples by courier twice a day.
The investigations have been performed in three
parts during 2010 – 2014 and are successors to the
investigation from 2006 (1).
The following components were investigated.
Part 1:
Stability of Parathyroid hormone, Prostate
specific antigen, C-Peptide, and Calcium ionized (pH
7.4), all measured in serum.
Part 2:
Stability of Glucose and Protime/INR, mea-
sured in plasma.
Part 3:
Stability of B – Hemoglobin, (B)Erythr –
MCV, B – Hematocrit, B – Leucocytes, B – Neu-
trophilocytes, B – Lymphocytes, B – Monocytes,
B – Eosinophilocytes, B – Thrombocytes, and B –
Reticulocytes.
Materials and methods
Part 1
Subjects
One hundred adult male patients that were under-
going routine venous puncture at their GP were
asked to participate. Extra 8 tubes were drawn and
submitted to different pre-analytical conditions. The
sample handling and the pre-analytical procedure
were carried out by the GP’s staff, nurses, secretaries
or laboratory technologists. A laboratory techno-
logist from the Department of Clinical Chemistry
and Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital was
handling the reference samples in GP offices. Four
different GPs participated.
