Benefits of Popular Blood Collection Tubes
1. Blood Collection Tubes Prevents Contact With Infection
Most patients come in carrying contagious diseases. The nursing staff is most exposed to all the horrible diseases because they deal with blood samples all day. These diseases can easily transmit if the blood sample is not handled with all the necessary precautions. With the help of disposable vacuum blood collection tubes, nurses and hospital staff can extract blood from patients without contacting the blood. This is because the vacuum tubes are mostly in a closed state. The vacuum blood tubes are made with plastic or glass material, with light pressure. These tubes are non-friable and portable. All these factors contribute to the safety of the nursing staff.
2. These Tubes Prevent The Blood Samples From Getting Contaminated
The vacuum inside the blood tubes plays a crucial role in saving the blood sample of patients from catching contamination. When the patient’s blood is pumped into the tube, there is no way it can be exposed to the outside environment. Moreover, the vacuum blood collection tube is sterilized, therefore it is free of any dirt particles. Due to the vacuum that does not allow the blood sample to come in contact with the external environment, the accuracy of the test results is enhanced. All the vacuum blood collection tubes come with safety caps that ensure maximum protection of the blood sample inside. These protection caps prevent any dirt from getting in.
3. These Tubes Have An Accurate Scale
It is extremely important to have accurate scales in the blood tubes because when agents and other medicines are added, the results can vary. The vacuum blood collection tubes come with fine scales. So, when you add examination items and other substances to the blood sample of the patient, the results are guaranteed accurate.
4. Vacuum Tubes Can Be Used With A Variety Of Analyzers
The specifications of these vacuum collection tubes are kept in line with international standards. If you own a full range of these blood extraction tubes, you can easily conduct all the laboratory experiments. Moreover, the needle that comes with the tube is good enough to complete the testing of all the samples. This also lifts the pain of patients because they won’t be injected again and again.
5. The Tubes Are Environment-friendly
The vacuum tubes can be used for 24 months straight, without needing to get another. After this period, you can easily dispose of the tubes and they don’t harm the environment. When burning carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in these tubes, they don’t produce toxic gases.
Choosing The Right Blood Collection Tubes
If you are a science student, then you must be familiar with the struggle involved in blood extraction for use in experiments and tests.
While collecting the samples, students should understand that every type of transport tube is designed for a specific collection.Check your protocols
The first thing that you could do, in order to select the right collection tube, is to check the protocol. Most of the time, the protocol mentions the samples you could use, along with the ones you are restricted from using.
However, in the unfortunate case, that this information is missing from the provided protocols, you can follow the ensuing guide to learn about the type of transport tube that is suitable for different types of samples.
Serum tubes
If your purpose is to get the serum, then this is the ideal transport tube for you. A serum tube enables colt activation, as these have silica particles in them. If you want to search for protein-free from coagulation, this transport tube is your savior.
Anticoagulant tubes
If you are searching for cells or plasma, then you should opt for anticoagulant tubes. These are ideal for saving the sample in its natural form, so you can get the most accurate results.
EDTA
ETDA is useful in getting the raw form of a sample, as it stops clothing by confining an important element of coagulation which is chelating calcium. This is one of the most commonly used hematology tubes for testing blood cells and etcetera.
Sodium Citrate
This type of transport tube is exactly the opposite of what has been discussed above. Sodium citrate allows coagulation by adding calcium to the sample. These test tubes are widely used in studying coagulant-relevant factors.
CTAD
This is not a very common type of tube, but it has its own benefits that are worth knowing. This is very helpful in preventing or stopping ex vivo activation within the platelets.
The most important thing you should know about CTADs is that they are highly sensitive to light. Therefore, these should always be placed in the dark.
Sodium/Lithium Heparin
These are very similar to the serum test tubes, but the main difference between the two is that serum tubes are used for testing serum while, on the other hand, these tubes are used for testing plasma. These might come along with a gel for separating.
If you are planning to conduct a PCR, then you should know that this might interfere with the PCR.
Sodium Fluoride
Sodium fluoride tubes are most commonly used for glucose and lactate testing because they contain antiglycolytic agents.
Sodium Polyanethol Sulfonate
Sodium polyanethol sulfonate is usually used in the field of microbiology. It is very useful in stabilizing the bacterial growth.
There are numerous options available in the market when it comes to tubes. It is very important to have the right blood collection tube that compliments your experiment or test. With the preceding tips, you can choose the right transport tubes for your experiment.
