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Correspondence
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Volume 343:153-154 July 13, 2000 Number 2
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High Serum Potassium Concentrations after Recentrifugation of Stored Blood Specimens

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To the Editor: We have encountered several patients who were found to have hyperkalemia only when serum potassium concentrations were measured at a certain community hospital. At that hospital, blood samples were collected from patients into gel-separator tubes and centrifuged 20 to 60 minutes later, but the serum was not removed. Later that day or the next day, the specimens were transported to a commercial laboratory, where they were centrifuged again along with uncentrifuged specimens collected just before transport to the laboratory. We therefore explored the possibility that the handling process caused pseudohyperkalemia.

In a time-series study of 5700 specimens . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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