Gray on ice?

[cardiac.cure03]

I had a clinical in the ER last week and kept hearing "gray on ice"...

What is that??:icon_roll

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Putting specimens on ice slows down metabolism in the sample. Lactic acid and ammonia rise very quickly in a body temperature specimen and therefore give false high results. Glucose on the other hand will fall because the cells in the sample will keep absorbing it. There will always be unavoidable delays in processing labs, so this method gives the most accurate results.

[CJH RN]

Hi,

I am one of those wierdo RN's who used to be a medical technologist in the clinical laboratory. Some samples go on ice because ice slow's down the rate of that substance being "used up" or "metabolized out" by the cells. A lot of things in the lab also have to do with what type of instrumentation and methodology is being used to run the test. That is why in some hospitals you can use certain tubes for a test but not in others. Just my 2 cents.

Have a great day,

Cindy

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

same in my ed as pedi er