title: Comparison of Improvacuter™ tubes with BD Vacutainer™ tubes for various hormones in the aspects of stability and influence of gel separators.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Validation of blood collection tubes are important to determine the role of different collection tubes which influence the assurance of laboratory results. We compared two different tubes (Improvacuter™ and Becton Dickinson [BD] Vacutainer™) and investigated the effect of gel and storage time in comparison with each other.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the results of nine immunoassays performed on UniCel® DxI 800 using blood samples collected in BD Vacutainer SST II Advance tubes, Improvacuter Gel and Clot Activator tubes, BD Vacutainer Clot Activator tubes and Improvacuter tubes. Analytes were measured in all tubes on 3 consecutive days to study the effect of long-term storage. Evaluation of clinical significance was performed based on total allowable error.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Estradiol and testosterone concentrations obtained from Improvacuter Gel and Clot Activator tubes and BD Vacutainer SST II Advance tubes remained below the lower limits of analytical range for the same analytes while they were within the limits in BD Vacutainer Clot Activator tubes and Improvacuter tubes. Statistical significance of stability was not clinically significant for the hormone parameters we tested in all four tubes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gel containing tubes (both BD and Improve) gave comparable results with the tubes which do not contain gel except for estradiol and testosterone. The use of gel containing tubes for estradiol and testosterone are not recommended on UniCel® DxI 800 according to our results. The change in the analyte concentrations over 48 h remained within the TEA limits for the studied analytes. Improve tubes gave similar results to BD tubes.
authors.forename: Cevdet
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zungun
authors.forename: Fatma Meriç
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Yılmaz
authors.forename: Elif Guney
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Boru
authors.forename: Canan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Topcuoglu
mesh_terms: D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D001793:Blood Preservation; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D006728:Hormones