I received a note from David Chance, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Corvallis OR, commenting that, unlike underfilled coagulation specimen (blue-closure) tubes; overfilling tubes, unless clots are present, does not affect coagulation results. Overfilling may occur when a specimen is collected by syringe and pushed into a tube. There is no comment on overfilling in CLSI H21-A5, […]

From Joe Lamb, St. Francis Hospital, Columbus, GA: Hi George. Recent updated test directories for the two big reference labs that serve local physicians state the specimen stability for partial thromboplastin time (PTT, APTT) is 24 hours at room temperature. This causes much confusion when we reject a specimen more than four hours old for PTT […]

From Kim Kinney at Indiana University (formerly Clarian) Health Center: Hi George, Even though I am not in coag much any more I still get a ton of questions. One of our TC’s was questioning our storage of PT/INR specimens. We follow the current recommendations of room temperature for 24 hours. We do not accept refrigerated whole […]

Here’s a summary of our October, 2011 Quick Question, “What specimen do you require for platelet function testing?” The answers: a. Two-syringe technique using a butterfly set: 1 (2%) b. Two-syringe technique using a Luer-slip needle: 1 (2%) c. 3.2% citrate (blue-closure) tubes by standard collection: 37 (74%) d. 3.2% citrate (blue-closure) tubes using a […]

From my friend and colleague, Donna M. Robert, Coagulation Technical Specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock: Hi George. I am looking for a source for Hepzyme. I used to get it from Dade directly, then from Beckman Coulter who said they do not carry it. Do you know of any company that carries this product? Hi, Donna, I checked […]