• Alex Pupek, Beverly Matthewson, Erin Whitman, Rachel Fullarton, and Yu Chen.
• .Department of Laboratory Medicine, Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital, Horizon Health Network Fredericton, NB, Canada; and Dalhousie Medical Program in New Brunswick, Saint John, NB, Canada.
• Clin Chem Lab Med. 2017 Aug 28; 55 (10): 1537-1544.

BackgroundThe pneumatic tube system (PTS) is commonly used in modern clinical laboratories to provide quick specimen delivery. However, its impact on sample integrity and laboratory testing results are still debatable. In addition, each PTS installation and configuration is unique to its institution. We sought to validate our Swisslog PTS by comparing routine chemistry, hematology, coagulation and blood gas test results and sample integrity indices between duplicate samples transported either manually or by PTS.MethodsDuplicate samples were delivered to the core laboratory manually by human courier or via the Swisslog PTS. Head-to-head comparisons of 48 routine chemistry, hematology, coagulation and blood gas laboratory tests, and three sample integrity indices were conducted on 41 healthy volunteers and 61 adult patients.ResultsThe PTS showed no impact on sample hemolysis, lipemia, or icterus indices (all p<0.05). Although alkaline phosphatase, total bilirubin and hemoglobin reached statistical significance (p=0.009, 0.027 and 0.012, respectively), all had very low average bias which ranged from 0.01% to 2%. Potassium, total hemoglobin and percent deoxyhemoglobin were statistically significant for the neonatal capillary tube study (p=0.011, 0.033 and 0.041, respectively) but no biases greater than ±4% were identified for these parameters. All observed differences of these 48 laboratory tests were not clinically significant.ConclusionsThe modern PTS investigated in this study is acceptable for reliable sample delivery for routine chemistry, hematology, coagulation and blood gas (in syringe and capillary tube) laboratory tests.

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