2.24
Working with capillary blood
When working with blood, plasma, serum or control samples
always observe the guidelines, regulations and precautions for
handling potentially infectious material which apply in your
practice or laboratory!
For specimen collection the usual laboratory equipment such as alco-
hol swabs, cotton swabs, lancets and collection tubes are required.
Capillary blood is collected with the aid of commercially available
lancets or a lancing device such as Accu-Chek Softclix Pro and
the matching Accu-Chek Softclix Pro Lancets and commercially
available blood collection tubes or capillary pipettes.
When collecting capillary blood, please observe the following points:
– Puncture site
In adults: a little to the side of the centre of the finger pad
In infants or small children: heel or big toe.
– Warm up site prior to puncture. The blood flow can be increased
by rubbing or massaging or by warming the site e.g. with a warm
moist towel.
– Cleanse the site prior to puncture with 70% alcohol. Wipe off
residual alcohol to prevent hemolysis.
– The first drop may contain a lot of tissue fluid and should there-
fore be wiped off with a swab.
– Do not milk the site as this increases hemolysis and introduces
excess tissue fluid.
– When using capillary pipettes the drop of blood should be suffi-
ciently large as otherwise small air bubbles may be aspirated. An
entrapped air bubble has to be expelled together with the sample
material below it and the tube then refilled, avoiding the aspiration
of air bubbles.
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