What everybody should know about postural changes

Abstract

Posture changes have been known for a long time to influence the concentration of many analytes in blood especially macromolecules. It is very clear that when someone switches from supine to sitting or standing or from sitting to standing a hemoconcentration is induced. Similarly, when someone switches from standing to sitting or lying a hemodilution occurs. In the context of clinical chemistry, rules have been issued to buffer the impact of postural changes close to the blood specimen collection (e.g. 15 min of seated rest before the blood puncture). A big work has then been performed to educate the personnel concerned by blood specimen collection (medical doctors, nurses, phlebotomists, pharmacists, clinical researchers, scientists, etc.) through professional training to standardize the puncture and the collection procedures. Official procedures and guidelines have been published. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go and too often standardization of posture before the blood collection is not properly performed. Maybe, this relative failure could be overcome by using new strategies in forwarding the message on the impact of posture changes in the outcome of blood tests and the importance of controlling this factor when blood specimens are taken. Some possible actions are presented concerning the improvement of the education of medical and paramedical personnel especially during their primary training, and also to educate the patients and the whole population in general.

Keywords:

• Blood specimen collection
• laboratory education
• laboratory standardization
• posture
• preanalytical factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.