Can we rely on out-of-hospital blood samples? A prospective interventional study on the pre-analytical stability of blood samples under prehospital emergency medicine conditions.

Background: Prehospital intravenous access provides the opportunity to sample blood from an emergency patient at the earliest possible moment in the course of acute illness and in a state prior to therapeutic interventions. Our study investigates the pre-analytical stability of biomarkers in prehospital emergency medicine and will answer the question whether an approach of blood sampling out in the field will deliver valid laboratory results.

Methods: We prepared pairs of blood samples from healthy volunteers and volunteering patients post cardio-thoracic surgery.