When I was a med tech, and we had those problems, we allowed the natural
clot to form longer. So, RT for, say, 2 hours, then overnight in the
refrigerator.
Could you use EDTA or something?
Good luck
Kim
On 14 Apr 1998, Laurie Davison wrote:
> 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-
>>>
