|
|
Article: Drawing blood gases in vacuum tubes.(Answering your questions)
- Article from:
- Medical Laboratory Observer
- Article date:
- March 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Q Occasionally, some of our ED doctors will draw arterial blood gases (ABGs) in a green-top Vacutainer tube. This usually happens with a cardiac arrest or severe trauma case. They also draw additional tubes for other tests while they are in the artery (presumably to save time and prevent having to stick the patient twice).
According to CLSI (formerly NCCLS) guidelines, blood drawn into a Vacutainer tube is not acceptable for ABGs because there is no way to anaerobically introduce the blood from the tube into the blood-gas analyzer; thus, our chemistry technologists have been instructed to reject these samples. Also, I was taught that one should never use an ...