TY - JOUR
T1 - Blood Glucose Determination: Effect of Tube Additives
AU - Lippi, Giuseppe
AU - Nybo, Mads
AU - Cadamuro, Janne
AU - Guimaraes, Joao T.
AU - van Dongen-Lases, Edmée
AU - Simundic, Ana-Maria
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - The measurement of fasting plasma glucose may be biased by a time-dependent decrease of glucose in blood tubes, mainly attributable to blood cell metabolism when glycolysis is not rapidly inhibited or blood cells cannot be rapidly separated from plasma. Although glycolysis inhibitors such as sodium fluoride (NaF) in combination with potassium oxalate (KOx) are currently used for overcoming this drawback, their efficacy for stabilizing blood glucose is seemingly limited, and probably lower than that of newer additives such as the citrate buffer. Therefore, we performed a critical analysis of the current scientific literature aimed to generate evidence-based information about the advantages of using citrate buffer in blood tubes compared to the more conventional NaF additive. The results of our systematic overview of the literature show that citrate blood tubes represent a considerable step forward in achieving more accurate and reliable plasma glucose measurements, thereby limiting the risk of underdiagnosing diabetes due to spurious decrease of glucose concentration in uncentrifuged blood specimens, ensuring higher stability of glucose levels over time, while simultaneously producing less hemolysis compared to NaF blood tubes. Therefore, we suggest that the use of this new mixture should be encouraged for achieving a higher degree of accuracy and standardization of plasma glucose measurements
AB - The measurement of fasting plasma glucose may be biased by a time-dependent decrease of glucose in blood tubes, mainly attributable to blood cell metabolism when glycolysis is not rapidly inhibited or blood cells cannot be rapidly separated from plasma. Although glycolysis inhibitors such as sodium fluoride (NaF) in combination with potassium oxalate (KOx) are currently used for overcoming this drawback, their efficacy for stabilizing blood glucose is seemingly limited, and probably lower than that of newer additives such as the citrate buffer. Therefore, we performed a critical analysis of the current scientific literature aimed to generate evidence-based information about the advantages of using citrate buffer in blood tubes compared to the more conventional NaF additive. The results of our systematic overview of the literature show that citrate blood tubes represent a considerable step forward in achieving more accurate and reliable plasma glucose measurements, thereby limiting the risk of underdiagnosing diabetes due to spurious decrease of glucose concentration in uncentrifuged blood specimens, ensuring higher stability of glucose levels over time, while simultaneously producing less hemolysis compared to NaF blood tubes. Therefore, we suggest that the use of this new mixture should be encouraged for achieving a higher degree of accuracy and standardization of plasma glucose measurements
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2017.12.003
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acc.2017.12.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 29478513
SN - 0065-2423
VL - 84
SP - 101
EP - 123
JO - Advances in Clinical Chemistry
JF - Advances in Clinical Chemistry
ER -