Influence of pneumatic tube system transport on routinely assessed and spectrophotometric cerebrospinal fluid parameters
Abstract
Pneumatic tube systems (PTS) are widely used in many hospitals. Using PTS reduces turnaround time and can improve patients' outcome.
We investigated whether clinically significant differences could be observed in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples transported by pneumatic tube in comparison with samples transported by hand. Two aliquots from one sample were sent by PTS and by hand from the department of neurology or neurosurgery and compared.
We found no significant changes in glucose, lactate levels and in any of the cytological parameters assessed, nor were statistically significant changes observed in the spectrophotometric parameters. We found a statistically significant decrease in total protein levels in samples transported by PTS.
Transport by PTS can be faster than transport by hand.