Understanding Blood Collection Tubes: Types, Functions, and Best Practices for Disease Screening

In the initial phase of disease screening, blood examination is often crucial. Blood collection tubes are essential tools for collecting blood samples from patients. However, various types of blood collection tubes exist, each serving specific purposes. Are you aware of their distinct functions?

1. Red blood collection tube normal/fast serum tube

Without anticoagulants, also called biochemical tubes, the inner wall of the blood collection tube is evenly coated with agents to prevent hanging, mainly used for blood biochemistry.

Divided into ordinary serum tubes and fast serum tubes, the label will be marked with or without procoagulant, or the use of red and orange to distinguish the two differences, the role of procoagulant is to accelerate blood clotting. The procoagulant is used to accelerate blood clotting. If you want to clot faster and get results, you can use procoagulant tubes.

Applicable sample type: Serum

Uses: Bacteria, tumors, gonads, immune routine, immune panel, rheumatologic antibodies, diabetic nephropathy test, blood triplets, ICA (insulin cell antibodies), GAD (glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies), ABAP (bone phosphatase), prostaglandins (T-PSA-F-PSA), HBV-DNA, ferritin, condensation set, calcitoninogen PCT, mycoplasma antibodies, gastrin ANCA, blood cytomegalovirus antibody, human epididymal epithelial secretory protein, serum protein electrophoresis, RA five, TB-AD tuberculosis antibody.

2. Green blood collection tube Heparin anticoagulation tube

Heparin is added to the blood collection tube. Heparin has the effect of antithrombin directly, which can prolong the clotting time of the specimen, and excessive heparin can cause the aggregation of leukocytes and cannot be used for leukocyte counting.

Applicable sample types: Whole blood, plasma

Uses: Red blood cell fragility test, blood gas analysis, red blood cell pressure test, sedimentation, and general biochemical determination.

3. Light blue blood collection tube Trace element tube

Contains sodium heparin, EDTA Na2, EDTA K2, procoagulant (plastic tube, serum), and non-procoagulant (glass tube, serum) additives. When testing sodium ions in blood specimens, sodium heparin should not be used to avoid affecting the test results.

Uses: trace elements, toxicology, and nutritional chemistry tests

4. Purple blood collection tube EDTA anticoagulant tube

Contains EDTA anticoagulant, in the routine blood test, EDTA anticoagulant compared with other anticoagulants, the coagulation of blood cells and the morphology of blood cells is less affected, so usually use EDTA salt (2K, 3K, 2Na) as anticoagulant.

EDTA salts can bind to calcium ions in the blood to form chelates, thus preventing blood coagulation.

Applicable sample types: whole blood, plasma

Uses:

2ml: blood routine, reticulocytes, glycated hemoglobin (HBAIC), TC blood group, BNP (beat fit)

5ml: pituitary, parathyroid hormone, renin, adrenal function, adrenocortical function ATCH+COR, cortisol (COR), blood type + D antigen (combined blood) does not apply to coagulation test and platelet function test, also not applicable to calcium ion, potassium ion, sodium ion, iron ion, alkaline phosphatase, creatine kinase and leucine aminopeptidase determination and PCR test.

5. Golden yellow blood collection tube Inert separation pro-coagulation tube

Contains inert separation gel and coagulant, the wall of the tube is coated with a coagulant to accelerate the coagulation of blood and avoid 37℃ water bath to shorten the test time. Separation gel and PET tube have a good affinity and play a role in isolation.

Applicable sample type: serum

Uses:

3ml: Biochemical items, digoxin concentration, cardiac enzymes, amylase, thyroid function, full thyroid function, free thyroid function, total thyroid hormone determination, thyroid antibodies, thyroid receptor antibodies

5ml: C-reactive protein (CRP immunity, red and yellow), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP)

When collecting blood, depending on the test items, you need to choose the correct blood collection tube to avoid abnormal test results.