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Reduce Blue-top Tube Volume?

From Maria E. Martinez. Is anyone re-adjusting anticoagulant levels in blue tops? We atOrlando Health have a large NICU and collecting a 2 mL blue top sometimes can be a huge demand. I have heard of re-adjusting the 200 uL anticoagulant in the 2 mL blue top to 100 uL and instructing the nurse to draw up to 1 mL instead. Any comments? Is this something that would need to be validated before implementing?

Hello, Maria, and thank you for your question. I support the idea of collecting smaller specimen volumes for the health of the patient, however I don’t recommend adjusting the anticoagulant volume of the 2 mL plastic BD Vacutainer tube. Using a tuberculin syringe, you’ll manage to accurately reduce the volume of anticoagulant, but you will have difficulty controlling the degree of vacuum in the tube. If you take off the top to adjust volume, the phlebotomist will have to collect using a syringe and transfer to the tube. Either way, it will be difficult to collect an accurate volume.

Greiner’s VACUETTE® series includes a 1 mL blue-top evacuated tube, catalog number 454320. This may be the answer! Geo.

Comments (2)
Specimen Management
Pmcraegoodsam
Nov 6, 2012 11:57am

We have sucessfully implemented the Greiner MiniCollect 1 mL
We have sucessfully implemented the Greiner MiniCollect 1 mL coagulation tube in our NICU and have been using them since 2011. The nurses collect 1 mL of whole blood into a syringe and transfer the contents to the 1 mL tube, and mix by inverting several times. We validated the mini tubes against our regular BD coag tubes, same citrate anticoagulant, etc.

Mfranco
Sep 20, 2012 1:46pm

Thank you!
Thank you!

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