Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 17, 2025
Preparation of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Pellets and Plasma from a Single Blood Draw at Clinical Trial Sites for Biomarker Analysis
Published on: March 20, 2021
A Multicenter Evaluation of a Nongel Mechanical Separator Plasma Blood Collection Tube for Testing of Selected
Svetlana Morosyuk1, Julie Berube1, Robert Christenson2
1BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ.
Background:
Some therapeutic drugs are unstable during sample storage in gel tubes. BD Vacutainer® Barricor™ Plasma Blood Collection Tube with nongel separator was compared with plasma gel tubes, BD Vacutainer PST™, PST II, and BD Vacutainer Serum Tube for acetaminophen, salicylate, digoxin, carbamazepine, phenytoin, valproic acid, and vancomycin during sample storage for up to 7 days.
Methods:
Seven hospital sites enrolled 705 participants who were taking at least one selected drug. The study tubes were collected and tested at initial time (0 h), after 48 h of storage at room temperature and on day 7 (after additional 5 days of refrigerated storage). The performance of BD Barricor tube was evaluated for each drug by comparing BD Barricor samples with samples from the other tubes at 0 h from the same participant; stability was evaluated by comparing test results from the same tube at 0 h, 48 h, and 7 days.
Results:
At 0 h, BD Barricor showed clinically equivalent results for selected therapeutic drugs compared with the other tubes, except phenytoin in BD PST. Phenytoin samples ≥20 µg/mL in BD PST had 10-12% lower values than samples in BD Barricor. During sample storage, all selected drugs remained stable for 7 days in BD Barricor and in serum aliquots. In BD PST, all drugs remained stable except phenytoin and carbamazepine and in BD PST II except for phenytoin.
Conclusion:
The BD Barricor Tube is effective for the collection and storage of plasma blood samples for therapeutic drug monitoring without sample aliquoting.
