HUMAN BLOOD SERA SEPARATION, THE USE OF VACUTAINER Vs TEST TUBE: OUR FIELD EXPERIENCE

The present study has been taken for comparing two blood collection and sera separation methods i.e. test tubes in parallel with vacutainers. Study has been carried out in four months (April to July, 2012)on one hundred and eighty five human volunteers from/across Niger State, Nigeria. About 4ml of blood sample were collected aseptically from cephalic vein and divided into two equal parts, first one placed into pre-labeled test tube and the second into vacutainer (plain) separately for each volunteer. Sera from both test tube and vacutainer for each volunteer were extracted and volume measured separately and in combination. The results revealed that a range of sera of between 0.4 - 0.7 µl for test tubes and 0.7 - 1µl for vacutainers were recovered, respectively. Findings of the present study clearly indicate that vacutainers are of significantly superior over test tubes in separating sera from whole blood particularly, if larger volume of serum is required.