The Analysis of Poor Inversion of the Serum Separation Gel

The Analysis of Poor Inversion of the Serum Separation Gel:

I. Operational Factors

1. Incomplete blood coagulation: Centrifuging blood before it is fully coagulated will cause the separating gel to mix with the blood.
2. Excessive centrifugal force: When the hydrogen bonds in the serum separation gel are broken during condensation, excessive centrifugal force makes it difficult for the gel to re-form a network structure, leading to failure of thixotropy and gel dispersion.
3. Insufficient centrifugal force: If the centrifugal force is too low, the serum separation gel may not meet the layering conditions, causing blood cells to mix with the gel and resulting in poor inversion.
4. Abnormal temperature: High storage or centrifugation temperature, or prolonged centrifugation time (which raises the temperature): The colloid softens, increasing the gel's fluidity and reducing its specific gravity, leading to unclear serum layering during centrifugation.
5. Low storage or centrifugation temperature: The serum separation gel hardens, increasing brittleness, which causes layering rupture during separation and poor inversion effect.
6. Improper balancing of the centrifuge: If blood collection tubes are placed asymmetrically in the centrifuge, vibration will occur during centrifugation, causing uneven centrifugal force. This leads to irregular blood layering and may even damage the blood collection tubes.
8. Violent shaking or collision of blood collection tubes before centrifugation may mix the components of blood that have started to coagulate, or damage blood cells, affecting the layering effect after centrifugation.

II. Pathological Factors

1. Coagulation dysfunctional diseases: Such as hemophilia, where patients lack coagulation factors, leading to prolonged blood clotting time or inability to clot normally. During centrifugation, abnormal layering may occur because the normal coagulation process is disrupted, altering the separation pattern of blood cells and plasma.
2. Polycythemia: This significantly increases the number of red blood cells in the blood. During centrifugation, due to the excessive number of red blood cells, higher centrifugal force or longer centrifugation time may be required to achieve layering of plasma and blood cells; otherwise, incomplete layering will occur.
3. Metabolic diseases: Hyperlipidemia: Patients have excessively high lipid components in their blood. After centrifugation, lipids may interfere with the separation of the serum/plasma layer from the blood cell layer, causing unclear layering, as excessive lipids alter the physical and chemical properties of the blood.
4. Autoimmune diseases:

• Cryoglobulinemia: In a low-temperature environment, cryoglobulins in the patient's blood will precipitate. If centrifugation is performed under low-temperature conditions, cryoglobulin precipitation will affect the normal layering of blood, complicating the compositional analysis after centrifugation.

• Multiple myeloma: Multiple myeloma is a malignant proliferative disease of plasma cells. Due to the abnormal proliferation of plasma cells, a large number of monoclonal immunoglobulins (M proteins) are produced. During centrifugation of blood collection tubes, excessive M proteins alter the physical properties of blood. This significantly increases blood viscosity, making it difficult for blood components to layer under centrifugal force, which may result in unclear layering and affect the accuracy of subsequent detection of serum or plasma components. 

In summary, the occurrence of poor inversion of the serum separation gel is closely related to multiple factors such as operational techniques and patient blood samples.

The serum separation gel products of Shanghai Tenghu, always based on technological innovation, use imported raw materials and adopt a uniquely optimized polymer polymerization formula, enabling the serum separation gel to have excellent thixotropic properties and good invertibility.

This ensures that the separating gel can maintain high colloidal stability, high inertness, and good resistance to environmental interference in scenarios such as bumpy transportation and fluctuating storage temperatures.