Blood Sample Collection Errors in Medical Laboratories

Abstract BACKGROUND: The majority of preanalytical errors that arise during the preanalytical process are mostly due to the absence of established sample collection procedures, which include patient preparation and conditioning according to the required analysis protocol, sample acquisition and blood drawing methods, and sample transportation, handling, and storage methods. The study aims to investigate that preanalytical errors constitute a major part of laboratory medicine, and overall laboratory quality control has a significant impact on overall and, consequently, diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: One hundred blood samples were collected from healthy females aged 18–35 years from Babylon Maternity and Children’s Teaching Hospital. Blood samples were collected from healthy women twice simultaneously: the first time using a tourniquet for more than 3 min (a case of venous blood retention “venous occlusion”) and the second time without a tourniquet to make some biochemical parameters. RESULTS: There is a significant increase or decrease in the values of some biochemical variables, such as calcium levels, by 9.6% in blood plasma and 0.8% in blood serum. At the same time, there is a decrease of 5.9% in blood plasma and 4.8% in blood serum for potassium concentrations. These comparisons were made with and without a tourniquet in plasma and blood serum. CONCLUSION: Venous obstruction resulting from preanalytical errors resulting from misuse of the tourniquet leads to many variations in biochemical parameters. This effect can be severe, moderate, or mild, and this is very important in the clinical diagnosis of the same person.