Inventarisatie van de (pre)analytische aspecten van de glucosebepaling in Nederlandse laboratoria: Tijd voor uniformiteit

Well controlled pre-analytical variables are essential to ensure a correct glucose measurement. Due to ongoing glycolysis, glucose levels are known to drop in vitro. To prevent this, glycolysis inhibitors are added to the tube. The most commonly used inhibitor (sodium fluoride), however, is not an immediteinhibitor, and it takes several hours to achieve the maximum effect. To inhibit glycolysis during the initial phase, guidelines recommend to choose between three alternatives: immediate cooling of the material, immediate separation of cells and plasma, or the use of direct glycolysis inhibitors. To gain insight in the protocols used in Dutch clinical laboratories, a survey was sent out to all heads of laboratories. Surprisingly, large differences exist between laboratories concerning specimen handling and, even more surprisingly, most of the laboratories used no direct glycolysis inhibition at all.