Measuring glucose and lactate in healthy volunteers and patients with diabetes: Do new blood collection tubes produce more accurate laboratory values?

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Accurate estimation of laboratory plasma glucose is important for the screening, diagnosis and management of several conditions, including diabetes. One of the reasons why laboratory plasma glucose results may not be accurate relates to in vitro glycolysis i.e. glucose is lost due to red cell uptake of glucose, if red cells are not separated immediately from plasma, following venesection. Routinely available blood collection tubes are not good glycolysis inhibitors. A 'new' citrate/fluoride blood collecting system, manufactured by Terumo, is thought to be much better at inhibiting glycolysis. Published information is however limited and there is virtually no information available from study participants with hyperglycaemia. The current study aims to compare pre-analytical glucose loss using the 'new' collection system with the systems already in routine use. The study also aims to compare intra-individual rates of glycolysis. If rates of glycolysis are similar both between and also within participants, then it may be possible to apply a correction factor when undertaking comparisons of serial glucose values across 'old' and 'new' collection systems.

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