Comparison of BD Vacutainer SST (TM) Plus Tubes with BD SST (TM) II Plus Tubes for common analytes

Serum separator tubes were introduced 25 years ago and are widely used in t he clinical laboratory today for routine collection of blood. These tubes h ave gained widespread acceptance due to the advantage of the barrier gel th at facilitates rapid separation of serum from cellular constituents of bloo d and thus reduces hemolysis. However, there are some limitations associate d with gel tubes (i.e., gel stability and analyte incompatibilities). The s erum separator ED SST (TM) tubes manufactured by ED are widely used in clin ical laboratories. Recently, ED has developed a new barrier gel, which is s uperior to the existing gel. We studied the stability of common analytes wh en serum specimens were stored in the new ED SST (TM) II tubes by comparing the performance with the existing ED SST (TM) tubes. We did not observe an y significant reduction in concentrations of 42 commonly ordered analytes u sing the new ED SST (TM) II tubes. Significant differences were noted at lo w serum volumes for estradiol in both tube types over time. We conclude tha t the new ED SST (TM) II tubes are suitable for collection of blood and sto rage of serum for commonly ordered laboratory tests. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.