iStat Sample Stability
Hello Group,
Has anyone done any kind of validation study to evaluate iStat troponin sample stability? We serve a fairly large area and would like to use blood collected on the ambulance for our initial iStat in the ED but it is often older than 30 minutes. This would significantly decrease our door to result time. We are considering doing a study to verify sample stability beyond 30 minutes in order to be able to use these samples. I understand the implications of it becoming a high-complexity test but that does not pose a considerable difficulty for us since a tech is doing the testing in the ED lab. I would really be interested to hear if anyone else has run into a similar issue and how they have addressed it.
Thanks in advance,
Patrick Phillips, MT
Performance Improvement Section Head
Clinical Laboratory
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare
1300 Miccosukee Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
850-431-5985 (p)
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I would be interested in this answer. If you do have a tech in the ER lab, you may want to look into the Pathfast Analyzer by Verbatim. Heparinized blood is stable for 4 hours and EDTA is stable for 2 hours. Nurses can be checked off for this, but admittedly it is not as easy as the iSTAT. It is a small benchtop so it is not handheld. We switched to this in February and have been pleased.