Discussion
EDTA entails the anticoagulant that is most appropriate in the differential analysis of white blood cells and entire blood cell counts. This is mainly because of the extent it preserves cells. Presently, the anticoagulant that the International Council for Standardization in Haematology recommends for full blood counts is the dipotassium salt of EDTA (England et al., 1993). This is the most commonly preferred anticoagulant across Europe and Japan although the UK and the US have been found to commonly use tripotassium salt of EDTA. Subject to optimal conditions, which entail having the appropriate anticoagulant concentration while analysis being undertaken within the first four hours after phlebotomy, whether tripotassium EDTA or dipotassium EDTA are used would not have significance variation on the results obtained from the differential analysis of white blood cells and full blood cell counts (Macey et al. 2002). Furthermore, citrate is also applicable as an anticoagulant especially in coagulation tests. This is because, different from EDTA, the activation of platelets in vitro tends to be less spontaneous when using sodium citrate. On …show more content…
The effect of EDTA extends to various phases of platelet activation. The effects further extends to releasing granules as a result of overextended time upon sampling (White & Escolar 2000). Ahnadi et al., (2003) examined the destructive effects that EDTA have by studying the effects that various anticoagulants, such as EDTA and sodium citrate, have on platelet structure through the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Their study shown that EDTA stimulates considerable and irreversible platelets activation. In these, the platelets not only increased in size but they also became more rounded as TEM micrographs
EDTA entails the anticoagulant that is most appropriate in the differential analysis of white blood cells and entire blood cell counts. This is mainly because of the extent it preserves cells. Presently, the anticoagulant that the International Council for Standardization in Haematology recommends for full blood counts is the dipotassium salt of EDTA (England et al., 1993). This is the most commonly preferred anticoagulant across Europe and Japan although the UK and the US have been found to commonly use tripotassium salt of EDTA. Subject to optimal conditions, which entail having the appropriate anticoagulant concentration while analysis being undertaken within the first four hours after phlebotomy, whether tripotassium EDTA or dipotassium EDTA are used would not have significance variation on the results obtained from the differential analysis of white blood cells and full blood cell counts (Macey et al. 2002). Furthermore, citrate is also applicable as an anticoagulant especially in coagulation tests. This is because, different from EDTA, the activation of platelets in vitro tends to be less spontaneous when using sodium citrate. On …show more content…
The effect of EDTA extends to various phases of platelet activation. The effects further extends to releasing granules as a result of overextended time upon sampling (White & Escolar 2000). Ahnadi et al., (2003) examined the destructive effects that EDTA have by studying the effects that various anticoagulants, such as EDTA and sodium citrate, have on platelet structure through the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Their study shown that EDTA stimulates considerable and irreversible platelets activation. In these, the platelets not only increased in size but they also became more rounded as TEM micrographs