Comparison of BD Vacutainer SST™ Plus Tubes with BD SST™ II Plus Tubes for common analytes

Serum separator tubes were introduced 25 years ago and are widely used in the clinical laboratory today for routine collection of blood. These tubes have gained widespread acceptance due to the advantage of the barrier gel that facilitates rapid separation of serum from cellular constituents of blood and thus reduces hemolysis. However, there are some limitations associated with gel tubes (i.e., gel stability and analyte incompatibilities). The serum separator ED SST (TM) tubes manufactured by ED are widely used in clinical laboratories. Recently, ED has developed a new barrier gel, which is superior to the existing gel. We studied the stability of common analytes when serum specimens were stored in the new ED SST (TM) II tubes by comparing the performance with the existing ED SST (TM) tubes. We did not observe any significant reduction in concentrations of 42 commonly ordered analytes using the new ED SST (TM) II tubes. Significant differences were noted at low serum volumes for estradiol in both tube types over time. We conclude that the new ED SST (TM) II tubes are suitable for collection of blood and storage of serum for commonly ordered laboratory tests. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.