Rapid Serum Blood Collection Tube Improves Patient Care

A serum blood-collection tube with a gel additive can be centrifuged only five minutes after the tube is filled.

Standard serum tubes require a 30-minute clot time prior to centrifugation. This reduction in clot time significantly shortens sample processing time and the time it takes for clinical laboratory professionals to begin analyzing and getting test results.


Preanalytical Systems, a unit of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD; Franklin Lakes, USA), announced that it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA; Silver Spring, MD, USA) 510(k) clearance for the BD vacutainer rapid serum tube, a blood collection device designed to help acute healthcare facilities and clinical labs rapidly analyze blood serum for patient diagnosis.

"Blood test results drive many important medical decisions, including how to treat or medicate patients," said Ana Stankovic, M.D., vice president, medical and scientific affairs and clinical operations for BD Diagnostics--Preanalytical Systems. "Technologies such as the BD Vacutainer Rapid Serum Tube can help reduce the time it takes to get answers from blood tests and have a significant impact on patient care and hospital productivity."

The widely accepted standard of collecting blood (phlebotomy) for medical diagnostic analysis is performed with a phlebotomy needle and evacuated tube. The vacuum force inside the tube gently draws blood from the patient's vein through the phlebotomy needle and into the evacuated tube. The first such device was introduced by BD 60 years ago and was called the evacutainer.

BD is a medical technology company that develops, manufactures, and sells medical devices, instrument systems, and reagents. BD is focused on improving drug delivery, enhancing the quality and speed of diagnosing infectious diseases and cancers, and advancing research, discovery, and production of new drugs and vaccines.

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