Influence of pneumatic tube delivery system on laboratory results.

Introduction: The pneumatic tube system (PTS) is an automated and fast modality of transportation of biological samples, but it has been reported to induce preanalytical errors.

Aim: To study the influence of transportation by PTS on biochemistry tests which are particularly sensitive to haemolysis and atmospheric pressure variation.

Materials And Methods: We compared laboratory results of arterial blood gas, sodium, potassium, chloride, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, glucose and haemolysis index of samples conveyed simultaneously by PTS and by courier.