engleski

To avoid fasting time, more risk than benefits

Laboratory medicine processes are complex and error susceptible. Pre-analytical and pre-pre-analytical phase account for more than two thirds of all laboratory errors. Among the requisites of the pre-pre-analytical phase, fasting time is an issue of high concern. Outpatients not fully compliant with the recommended time of fasting before blood collection are commonly observed and reported by phlebotomy services, despite instructions provided by laboratories and various other healthcare institutions. Prior to blood sampling, patient fasting status should be verified. Failure to do so might result in obtaining an inadequate sample. Results from unsuitable specimens are not reliable and such samples should not be processed. If this is not possible and blood specimen needs to be drawn from a non-fasting patient, test report should be accompanied with a comment, as a warning for a clinician about potential bias. An important framework for the harmonization of definitions for fasting requirements for laboratory tests was published by the Working Group on Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE) of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM)

fasting ; preanalytical phase ; quality

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