Quality of hematology and clinical chemistry results in laboratory and zoo nonhuman primates: Effects of the preanalytical phase. A review

Most errors in clinical pathology originate in the preanalytical phase, which includes all steps from the preparation of animals and equipment to the collection of the specimen and its management until analyzed. Blood is the most common specimen collected in nonhuman primates. Other specimens collected include urine, saliva, feces, and hair. The primary concern is the variability of blood hematology and biochemistry results due to sampling conditions with the effects of capture, restraint, and/or anesthesia. Housing and diet have fewer effects, with the exception of food restriction to reduce obesity. There has been less investigation regarding the impact of sampling conditions of nonblood specimens.

Improving the Quality of EDTA-treated Blood Specimens from Mice

Nonterminal blood sampling in laboratory mice is a very common procedure. With the goal of improving animal welfare, different sampling sites and methods have been compared but have not achieved a consensus. Moreover, most of these studies overlooked the quality of blood specimens collected. The main preanalytical concern with EDTA-treated blood specimens for hematology analyses is platelet aggregation, which is known to cause analytical errors. Our objective was to find a nonterminal blood sampling method with minimal adverse effects on mice and few or no platelet aggregates. We tested and compared 2 collection sites, 4 sampling methods, and 3 antithrombotic drugs in 80 C57BL6/j male and female mice by evaluating platelet aggregates on blood smears and platelet, WBC, and RBC counts. In addition, the blood collection process was carefully evaluated, and adverse effects were recorded. Platelet aggregation was lower in specimens collected from the jugular vein than from the facial vein, with no effect of the sampling device or the presence of an antithrombotic additive. Highly aggregated specimens were significantly associated with lower platelet counts, whereas aggregation had no effect on WBC or RBC counts. Adverse events during sampling were significantly associated with more numerous platelet aggregates. The jugular vein is thus a satisfactory sampling site in mice in terms of both animal welfare and low platelet aggregation. Using antithrombotic agents appears to be unnecessary, whereas improving sampling conditions remains a key requirement to ensure the quality of EDTA-treated blood specimens from mice.

Evaluation of CTAD (citrate-theophylline-adenosine-dipyridamole) as a universal anticoagulant in dogs

CTAD (citrate-theophylline-adenosine-dipyridamole) has been shown to be an almost universal anticoagulant in human and feline medicine, allowing most hematology, coagulation, and biochemical analyses. Forty canine blood specimens were collected in CTAD, EDTA, heparin, and citrate for hematology, biochemistry, and coagulation analyses. CTAD partially limited platelet aggregation observed in EDTA blood smears. CTAD specimens gave similar and well-correlated results for most variables of a complete blood cell count, except for mean corpuscular volume, which was moderately higher, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, which was moderately lower in CTAD than in EDTA; reticulocyte and platelet indexes were poorly correlated. CTAD plasma gave similar results to citrate for fibrinogen, antithrombin, and D-dimers, and relatively similar results for prothrombin time, but activated partial thromboplastin time was poorly correlated. Triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, total proteins, phosphate, iron, alanine aminotransferase, γ-glutamyl transferase, and lipase were similar and well correlated in CTAD and heparin plasmas. Urea, creatinine, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, amylase, and aspartate aminotransferase showed moderate-to-marked bias, but these variables could be measured in CTAD plasma if new reference intervals were determined. Creatine kinase activity, potassium, chloride, and total carbon dioxide measurements are not recommended in CTAD plasma. CTAD is a prospective candidate as an almost universal anticoagulant for routine hematology, some plasma coagulation, and many biochemistry variables in dogs. Definitive recommendations will require study of abnormal canine blood specimens.