In The Laboratory: What Happens To Blood

In the laboratory: what happens to blood

In the medical laboratory primarily blood, but also a number of other test materials (such as urine, semen, cough mucus, cerebrospinal fluid, punctures from body cavities, etc.) are subjected to corresponding analytical-chemical or morphological diagnostic processes. On the one hand, complex laboratory machines, which are mechatronic systems that are operated by professional laboratory employees, are used in the laboratory. In the last few decades, automation has become increasingly widespread in medical laboratories, which saves costs and enables the overall performance of laboratory work to be optimized.

On the other hand, there are a number of work areas in medical laboratories that cannot be automated. This includes, for example, tissue processing, medical microscopy and much more. The final product of all laboratory processes is the laboratory result, on which the test results are presented in a tabular format.

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• First steps in the laboratory
• Highly specialized laboratory workplaces
• Storage of the samples
• The results of the laboratory work

First steps in the laboratory

In the laboratory, the examination materials (blood, urine, etc.) are administered in a special laboratory IT system (also known as the laboratory information system - abbr. LIS). This system records which examinations are to be made from which material.

Special barcode labels are printed out in the LIS and stuck onto the sample vessels. These labels ensure that samples are not mixed up in the laboratory.

The next steps in the laboratory include:

• Centrifugation: If plasma or serum is examined, the blood must be centrifuged.
• Distribution of blood samples to the laboratory workplaces.

Highly specialized laboratory workplaces

In a modern medical laboratory, the samples are processed at the various workplaces by highly qualified biomedical analysts (BMA) or people from the field of "medical assistant professions" (specialist module laboratory assistant - formerly known as "medical technical specialist"). In some cases, complex devices are used that have to be strictly maintained, calibrated and checked.

However, many laboratory tests are also carried out manually or body cells have to be examined under a microscope. There are also laboratory analyzes that take several days or even weeks. This includes, for example, microbiological or genetic analyzes.

Storage of the samples

After the samples have been processed, the blood tubes are sent to a storage area (refrigerated archive), where they are usually kept for a week. This means that, if necessary, certain analyzes can be repeated or individual values can be requested. The tubes are finally disposed of as hazardous waste, which is incinerated.

The results of the laboratory work

All measurement results are finally summarized in the form of a laboratory result, with the specialist in medical and chemical laboratory diagnostics vouching for the accuracy of the laboratory values. Every finding is checked for medical plausibility by the laboratory specialist:

• If the laboratory values match,
• in terms of previous values and also
• in relation to the assignment diagnosis?

If a finding is unclear or incomprehensible, the patient should contact his / her doctor without hesitation.