Comparison of ethanol and other drugs of abuse concentrations in whole blood stored in venoject glass and plastic and venosafe plastic evacuated tubes.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of blood concentrations of a variety of illegal and medicinal drugs that are important for forensic analyses when spiked and stored in Vacutainer or Venosafe evacuated plastic collection tubes compared to Vacutainer evacuated glass tubes. Tubes were filled with spiked whole blood and analyzed after storage for one week at ambient temperature and at -20 degrees C, respectively. Freeze-and-thaw stability was included in the study. No significant difference between storage in glass or plastic tubes was noted for any compound investigated.
Karinen
Ritva
R
Division of Forensic Toxicology and Drug Abuse, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404, Nydalen, 0403 Oslo, Norway. rika@fhi.no
Oiestad
Elisabeth Leere
EL
Andresen
Wenche
W
Wethe
Grete
G
Smith-Kielland
Anne
A
Christophersen
Asbjørg
A
D001793:Blood Preservation; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods*; D016903:Drug Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004355:Drug Stability; D004356:Drug Storage; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood*; D005615:Freezing; D005898:Glass; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000097:blood*; D010969:Plastics; D015813:Substance Abuse Detection; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010969:Plastics; D000431:Ethanol