Preanalytical Errors Introduced by Sample-Transportation Systems: A Means

Sample transportation is one of the major factors con-tributing to delays in returning high-quality clinical laboratory results to the patient bedside. Furthermore, sample quality can be compromised by exposure to extremes of temperature and physical forces during transportation.Uncontrolled temperature-induced er-rors are well understood and are often prevented by using environmentally controlled transportation con-tainers. The effects of excessive physical forces applied to medical samples are poorly understood, however. For example, pneumatic tubes are in widespread use for transportingmedical samples to the laboratory, be-cause they substantially reduce turnaround times (1) and are a less expensive alternative to creating satellite laboratories (2). While in transit in pneumatic tubes