Collection Information

1.8 mL Sodium Citrate tube filled to the line
OR
2.7 mL Sodium Citrate tube filled to the line
Blue top tubes must be filled within 10% of stated volume. A discard tube must be used if a citrate tube is to be drawn using a winged blood collection set. It is important to remove air from the blood collection set to ensure the proper blood volume is obtained in the coag tube.
If needed, 1mL sodium citrate tubes can be prepared by the laboratory. These are a non-vacuum orange screw cap tube with lab prepared anticoagulant. To obtain some of these custom tubes please call the coagulation laboratory at 5-9463.
If the patient has a known hematocrit >55%, please contact the coagulation lab for an adjusted collection tube before drawing the blood.
Specimen drawn more than one hour prior to testing may not be reliable for heparin monitoring (may be fasely low) if not spun immediately and seperated from the cells.