Tuesday 2 July 2013

Tubes Used For Blood Specimen Collection

By Estela Bolton


At some point in a person's life, there will come a time when it is necessary to go for blood specimen collection. This is especially the case when one needs to go for a medical examination. This fluid will be collected by a certified nurse and submitted to the laboratory for an analysis. One can expect the test results as soon as the analysis is done.

The nurse is surely the one that the person can entrust this job to. It is fine to rely on the services of the said professional to ensure that the fluid collected is the right one. They are also the one who is knowledgeable enough in this task, thus avoiding any mix-ups. The fluid will be placed in the right tubes.

If the nurse has gotten enough sample for the said test, it will then be sealed in the appropriate tubes. These tubes may or may not have additives in them. Moreover, they have various colored stopper caps which coincides with the medical exam the sample is needed for. Here are the types of tubes that one will have to deal with.

The first one is the red top. It is actually a common type of tube that a medical personnel will use when performing medical tests such as blood typing, cross-matching, and other similar ones. It has a wide range of use so it is common to see this. There is no additive in this tube, though.

It is also a good idea to know what SST is. This is commonly known as serum separator tube. On the other hand, there are others who call this as the tiger top. The additives in the serum separator tube is the clot activator and polymer gel. These are those agents that can easily separate the serum in the tube while in the centrifuge.

There is the lavender top that the individual can handle as well. This is actually the kind of tube which the person can use in order to obtain a total blood count. The additive in this kind of tube is the EDTA. It is a type of anticoagulant additive. The purpose of having this additive is to chelate the calcium in the fluid.

There is the dark green top tube as well. The said tube is commonly being used these days in those medical examinations that will require the person to know what the ammonia level or lithium level is in the collected fluid. The only additive in this tube is an anticoagulant agent commonly known as herapin.

Another helpful tube in the medical field is the light blue top. This contains the additive known as sodium citrate. There are many uses for the additive called sodium citrate. With this kind of additive, removing calcium from the collective fluid will be a piece of cake.

There is the light gray top too. There are multiple additives included in the said tube. The person can expect having antiglycolytic agents, sodium fluoride, and potassium oxylate in the said tube. With these additives, one can preserve the fluid's glucose for five days at most. This tube will be used for handling blood specimen collection meant for knowing the person's glucose level.




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