Blood is in various color tubes, which denote coagulants, anticoagulants, etc.
Green is for most things. They have sodium heparin or lithium heparin to turn off thrombin and thromboplastin, which clot blood. Inside your body, they make scabs to keep you from bleeding out. Heparin is an anticoagulation thing. Complete metabolic panels are done in green tubes.
Lavender is for CBCs, or complete blood counts, and blood typing. They have K2EDTA on them and go to Hematology. CBCs measure how many red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets you have and what proportion of the blood they are. It’s one of the most common tests.
Blue is for PT, PTT, and DDQ. They contain Sodium Citrate and go to Coagulation. Sodium Citrate is a reversible anticoagulant. PT and PTT check how fast blood clots. They are ordered for people with clotting issues or people who are on blood thinners, like heparin and warfarin. For PT, blue tops are centrifuged, then kept in a water bath, then calcium chloride is added to counteract the citrate, and finally they test how long it takes for the blood to clot. It should take 11-15 seconds. In PTT, after centrifugation, Calcium, kaolin, and cephalin are added to start the clotting process. A clot usually forms in 35 seconds. Vitamin K deficiencies, liver disease, or other clotting problems would have different results and take longer to clot. DDQ (D-dimer) tries to rule out blood clots as the cause of an issue. If the test is positive, then there’s a big clot building up and breaking down somewhere in the body, but it doesn’t say where or why.
Yellow has a clot activator and gel. It’s spun in a centrifuge, and then the serum is removed and put into a different container. It’s sent to a different lab for blood donor screening or to test for infectious diseases.
Red-brown stoppered are for weird things. They have clot activators and are silicone coated. They’re like yellows because the serum is removed and can be tested for the same things.
Gel separates plasma and blood cells. It has a density between the two, so when centrifuging separates the blood, the gel moves to the middle and keeps it separated. After blood is collected, if there’s a coating on the container, the blood is tipped and flipped a few times to mix the blood.
Green is for most things. They have sodium heparin or lithium heparin to turn off thrombin and thromboplastin, which clot blood. Inside your body, they make scabs to keep you from bleeding out. Heparin is an anticoagulation thing. Complete metabolic panels are done in green tubes.
Lavender is for CBCs, or complete blood counts, and blood typing. They have K2EDTA on them and go to Hematology. CBCs measure how many red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets you have and what proportion of the blood they are. It’s one of the most common tests.
Blue is for PT, PTT, and DDQ. They contain Sodium Citrate and go to Coagulation. Sodium Citrate is a reversible anticoagulant. PT and PTT check how fast blood clots. They are ordered for people with clotting issues or people who are on blood thinners, like heparin and warfarin. For PT, blue tops are centrifuged, then kept in a water bath, then calcium chloride is added to counteract the citrate, and finally they test how long it takes for the blood to clot. It should take 11-15 seconds. In PTT, after centrifugation, Calcium, kaolin, and cephalin are added to start the clotting process. A clot usually forms in 35 seconds. Vitamin K deficiencies, liver disease, or other clotting problems would have different results and take longer to clot. DDQ (D-dimer) tries to rule out blood clots as the cause of an issue. If the test is positive, then there’s a big clot building up and breaking down somewhere in the body, but it doesn’t say where or why.
Yellow has a clot activator and gel. It’s spun in a centrifuge, and then the serum is removed and put into a different container. It’s sent to a different lab for blood donor screening or to test for infectious diseases.
Red-brown stoppered are for weird things. They have clot activators and are silicone coated. They’re like yellows because the serum is removed and can be tested for the same things.
Gel separates plasma and blood cells. It has a density between the two, so when centrifuging separates the blood, the gel moves to the middle and keeps it separated. After blood is collected, if there’s a coating on the container, the blood is tipped and flipped a few times to mix the blood.
