Abstract
A rapid-clotting blood collection tube, which is coated with thrombin on the inner wall of the orifice, is suitable for the rapid reporting of test results. However, the effects of thrombin coating on test results have been evaluated only for limited test items. Therefore, we examined the test results of blood collected from healthy volunteers using three types of blood collection tube, namely, a glass blood collection tube, a conventional blood collection tube, and a rapid-clotting blood collection tube, for 146 test items, which included 59 biochemical test items, 38 tumor marker/hormone test items, 24 infection test items, and 25 autoimmunity test items. Although statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the rapid-clotting blood collection tube and the other types of collection tube were observed in some test items, the differences appeared to be negligibly small in daily clinical practice. In healthy volunteers, the rapid-clotting blood collection tube, in comparison with the conventional blood collection tube, did not show any clinically detrimental effect on test results.
