Commonly Used Blood Collection Tubes and

Order of Draw
Prepared by: Aldrin Autencio, MSMT, RMT

Evacuated Tubes
Are used with both the ETS and the syringe
method of obtaining blood specimens
Ranges in size and volumes
Tube selection:
 Age
 Volume
 Vein Stoppers
Are typically made of rubber
Vacuum Protects the analyst from aerosol formation
Is artificially created by pulling air from the tube Rigidity of the plastic also prevents removal of
a tube that has prematurely lost all or part of its the stopper
vacuum will fail to properly fill with blood
Color Coding
Premature loss of vacuum can occur from: Help identify the type of additive placed in the
 improper storage, opening the tube tube by the manufacturer for a specific purpose
 dropping the tube
 advancing the tube too far onto the
needle before venipuncture
 if the needle bevel becomes partially
out of the skin during venipuncture

Premature loss of vacuum, removing the tube

before the vacuum is exhausted, or stoppage of
blood flow during the blood draw can result in
an underfilled tube called a partial draw or
“short draw”

Additive tubes
Is any substance placed within a tube other
than the tube stopper
Blood collected in additive tubes may or may
not clot, depending on the additive type Expiration date
Tubes are handled to be properly and stored
between 4 and 25°C
Nonadditive tubes
Most are used for clearing or discard purposes Order of Draw
only Refers to the order in which tubes are collected
Yields serum during a multiple-tube draw or are filled from a
syringe
CLSI reccomendation:
1. Sterile tube (blood culture)
2. Blue-top coagulation tube
3. Serum tube with or without clot activator,
with or without gel
4. Heparin tube with or without gel plasma
separator
5. EDTA tube
6. Glycolytic inhibitor tube

Carryover/Cross-Contamination
Is the transfer of additive from one tube to
the next
Occurs by: when blood in an additive tube
touches the needle during ETS blood
collection or when blood is transferred from a
syringe into ETS tubes