Introduction: The pneumatic tube system (PTS) is widely used for sample delivery. We aimed to investigate the impacts of PTS on hemostasis assays.
Methods: Triplicate samples from 30 healthy volunteers were delivered to the core laboratory manually by human courier or via the 500 m long-distance PTS or via the 1000 m long-distance PTS. Comparisons of 19 hemostasis tests were conducted.
Results: Although PT, INR, APTT, FII, FV, FVII FIX, FX, FXII, DD, α2-PI, and PC had statistical significance (all P < .05), all had low average bias remaining within clinical acceptable limits. PTS transportation only resulted in a statistically significant and clinically relevant decrease in FVIII activity. In the 500 m-PTS group, 66.7% (20/30) of samples for FVIII testing had a bias greater than 8.3%. Moreover, in the 1000 m-PTS group, 96.7% (29/30) of samples had a bias of over 8.3%, and the maximal bias achieved 42.1%.
Conclusions: Pneumatic tube system in our institution could be used to deliver blood samples for hemostasis tests evaluated in this study except FVIII activity assay.
Keywords: blood coagulation factors; factor VIII; hemostasis; pneumatic tube system; pre-analytical phase.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.