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Evaluation of a pneumatic tube system carrier prototype with fixing mechanism allowing for automated unloading

  • Cora M. Märtens , Juliane Schöpfel , Stefan Bollmann , Anke Hannemann , Stephanie Zylla , Mathilde Borg Dahl , Friederike Gauß , Josef Schedl , Matthias Nauck and Astrid Petersmann
Published/Copyright: May 31, 2022
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 60 Issue 8

Abstract

Objectives

A carrier prototype by Aerocom® (Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany) for pneumatic tube systems (PTS) is able to transport 9 blood tubes which are automatically fixed by closing the lid. In this study, we examined the influence of the transport on blood sample quality using the carrier prototype comparing to courier transport and a conventional carrier (AD160, Aerocom®).

Methods

Triplicate blood samples sets (1 lithium heparin, 1 EDTA, 1 sodium citrate) of 35 probands were split among the transportation methods: 1. courier, 2. conventional carrier, and 3. carrier prototype. After transport 51 measurands from clinical chemistry, hematology and coagulation were measured and compared.

Results

Overall, 49 of the investigated 51 measurands showed a good concordance among the three transport types, especially between the conventional carrier and the carrier prototype. Focusing on well-known hemolysis sensitive measurands, potassium showed no statistically significant differences. However, between courier and both carrier types lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and free hemoglobin (fHb) showed statistically significant shifts, whereas the clinical impact of the identified differences was neglectable. The median concentration of fHb, for example, was 0.29 g/L (18 µmol/L), 0.31 g/L (19 µmol/L) and 0.32 g/L (20 µmol/L) for courier transport, conventional carrier and carrier prototype, respectively. These differences cannot be resolved analytically since the minimal difference (MD) for fHb is 0.052 g/L (3.23 µmol/L), at this concentration.

Conclusions

The carrier prototype by Aerocom® is suitable for transportation of diagnostic blood samples. The overall workflow is improved by decreasing hands-on-time on the ward and laboratory while minimizing the risk of incorrectly packed carriers.

Keywords: laboratory automation; pneumatic tube system; pre-analytical phase; sample transport
Corresponding author: Dr. med. Juliane Schöpfel, Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Straße 17475 Greifswald, Germany, Phone: +49-3834-86-5505, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The study was supported by Aerocom (Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany).

  1. Research funding: This study was in part funded by Aerocom® (Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany).

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  5. Ethical approval: The study was approved by the local ethics committee (BB 100/15).

  6. Data availability: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0193).

Received: 2022-03-03
Accepted: 2022-05-20
Published Online: 2022-05-31
Published in Print: 2022-07-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0193
Keywords for this article
laboratory automation; pneumatic tube system; pre-analytical phase; sample transport

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Transdermal measurement of cardiac troponins: the future is now
  4. Reviews
  5. Perinatal presepsin assessment: a new sepsis diagnostic tool?
  6. Hypertriglyceridemia, a causal risk factor for atherosclerosis, and its laboratory assessment
  7. Opinion Paper
  8. The novelties of the regulation on health technology assessment, a key achievement for the European union health policies
  9. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  10. Performance of four regression frameworks with varying precision profiles in simulated reference material commutability assessment
  11. Comparison of six regression-based lot-to-lot verification approaches
  12. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) at the preanalytical phase for POCT blood gas analysis: proposal for a shared proactive risk analysis model
  13. Evaluation of a pneumatic tube system carrier prototype with fixing mechanism allowing for automated unloading
  14. Analytical performance of eight enzymatic assays for ethanol in serum evaluated by data from the Belgian external quality assessment scheme
  15. Vitamin D metabolism in living kidney donors before and after organ donation
  16. Validation of steroid ratios for random urine by mass spectrometry to detect 5α-reductase deficiency in Vietnamese children
  17. Evaluation of serum neurofilament light in the early management of mTBI patients
  18. Assessment of urine sample quality by the simultaneous measurement of urinary γ-glutamyltransferase and lactate dehydrogenase enzyme activities: possible application to unravel cheating in drugs of abuse testing
  19. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  20. Age and sex specific reference intervals of 13 hematological analytes in Chinese children and adolescents aged from 28 days up to 20 years: the PRINCE study
  21. Cancer Diagnostics
  22. Prostate health index (PHI) as a reliable biomarker for prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
  23. A comparison of the faecal haemoglobin concentrations and diagnostic accuracy in patients suspected with colorectal cancer and serious bowel disease as reported on four different faecal immunochemical test systems
  24. Circulating cell-free DNA undergoes significant decline in yield after prolonged storage time in both plasma and purified form
  25. Cardiovascular Diseases
  26. Analytical and clinical performance evaluation of a new high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assay
  27. Infectious Diseases
  28. Results of a SARS-CoV-2 virus genome detection external quality assessment round focusing on sensitivity of assays and pooling of samples
  29. Letters to the Editors
  30. Improving D-dimer testing appropriateness by controlling periodicity of retesting: prevention is better than cure
  31. Biological variation of serum cholinesterase catalytic concentrations
  32. Three-month ad interim analysis of total anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in healthy recipient of a single BNT162b2 vaccine booster
  33. Fibrin strands in peripheral blood smear: the COVID-19 era
  34. Fragments of alpha-1-antitrypsin in patients with severe COVID-19 and bacterial pulmonary sepsis
  35. Comparison of thyroid stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, total triiodothyronine, thyroglobulin and peroxidase antibodies measurements by two different platforms
  36. Effect of different incubation times on the detection of factor VIII inhibitor in acquired hemophilia A
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