Hi:)
I'm posting this question to a few newsgroups in hopes that someone
can answer a question for me.
I work in an equine reproductive research laboratory and we do a lot
of blood work - mainly RIA of various hormones in mare's blood. We treat
all blood samples the same way: allowed to clot at room temp for about an
hour, then placed in the 'fridge overnight to allow the clot to shrink,
then centrifuged and poured off the following morning. Heparin cannot be
used as it interferes with two of our assays (melatonin and T4).
The problem is that we keep getting large "serum clots" (presumably
due to fibrin?) which are causing us to lose up to 80% of the total
volume of serum. Their formation does not seem to be affected by the
ammount of time we keep it at room temp or in the 'fridge, or by the
speed of centrifugation. Since we take our blood at a University farm and
have to travel 20 minutes back to the lab, "immediate" centrifugation for
plasma is also not an option.
Have any of you run into this problem in your work? If so, can you
offer any advice on how to prevent this from occurring? I've worked with
the blood of a number of species and I don't recall ever having had this
trouble before.
Suggestions *Gratefully* Awaited!!!:)
-Laurie-
