Underfilled K2EDTA Vacutainer on Automated Haematological Blood Cell Indices- To Reject or Reconsider?

Introduction: The most common reason for rejection of blood samples in laboratory is because they are under-filled. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines state that blood vacutainers that contain either 10% higher or lower blood than the recommended volume must be rejected. Repeated phlebotomy has to be performed for such samples which can delay the turnaround time. Aim: To study the effects of underfilled K2EDTA vacutainers on automated haematology indices and compare them with the standard. Materials and Methods: This observational and comparative study was conducted at the department of pathology, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu for a duration of 6 months from January 2019 to June 2019. A 100 paired samples of underfilled K2EDTA vacutainers were compared with the standard for Complete Blood Count (CBC) analysis using BECKMAN COULTER LH 780 analyser. Statistical analyses was done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software v.18 and paired student’s t-test. The p-value