Impact of blood collection devices and mode of transportation on peripheral venous blood gas parameters

•Peripheral venous blood (PVB) is collected in blood collection tubes (BCT).•PVB may be used as an alternative to arterial blood for blood gas testing.•Pneumatic tube systems (PTS) are known to alter some blood gas parameters.•No studies to date have determined the impact of PTS on PVB collected in BCT.•PTS transport significantly alters pO2, sO2, FO2Hb, and FHHb concentrations in BCT. Peripheral venous blood (PVB) gas analysis has become an alternative to arterial blood gas (BG) analysis in assessing acid-base balance. This study aimed to compare the effects of blood collection devices and modes of transportation on peripheral venous BG parameters. PVB-paired specimens were collected from 40 healthy volunteers into blood gas syringes (BGS) and blood collection tubes (BCT), transported by either a pneumatic tube system (PTS) or human courier (HC) to the clinical laboratory, and compared using a two-way ANOVA or Wilcoxon signed-rank test. To determine clinical significance, the PTS and HC-transported BGS and BCT biases were compared to the total allowable error (TEA). PVB partial pressure of oxygen (pO2), fractional oxyhemoglobin (FO2Hb), fractional deoxyhemoglobin (FHHb), and oxygen saturation (sO2) showed statistically significant differences between BGS and BCT (p