Fast, economical technique for separating serum from blood samples

We evaluated the effectiveness with which polystyrene beads separate serum from blood. Paired blood samples were analyzed for 23 different serum constituents. One specimen of each pair was processed by the conventional separation method, the other by a single centrifugation with the polystyrene beads. Differences between the assay means were evaluated by the z-test, and the data pairs were compared by regression analysis. No statistically significant differences were found.