Autoclave room

During free time, I tend to explore somewhere I was curious in the laboratory. For example, one of the storeroom.

And after getting the permission from my mentor, I went into the store room to look around and found the autoclave room.

Although this is not a special item, however it was a new discovery and I was happy for that.

Difference between Plasma & Serum. ( & Anticoagulant )

Plasma consists of fibrinogen/clotting factor. It is the cells-free part of the blood which can be collected by spinning the red capped test tube that containing the blood until the blood cells have sediment at the bottom. The blood is often treated with anticoagulant before centrifuge.

Serum is the plasma without the clotting factors.
It can be obtained by centrifuge the blood sample after the blood is clotted in the SST tube.

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Anticoagulant

• Function: Block the formation of fibrin clot.

• Examples:
• EDTA
• Potassium Oxalate
• Sodium Citrate

• Mechanism: Removal of Ca++ which is essential for the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin.                       [Thrombin is the enzyme that initiate the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin] 

Type of containers using in the Medical Lab.

Different tubes have different purposes and different additives.

Colour	Additive	Purpose
Lavender Cap	EDTA	Anticoagulant
Yellow Cap	SST	Separating Gel and Clot activator
Red Cap	Plain tube
Sky blue Cap	Sodium Citrate	Whole blood

(Serum of patient which used for therapeutic drug monitoring should not be collected using serum separating tube. Instead, the specimen should be collected using a plain tube which containing no anticoagulant or additive. This is because the gel used for separating the serum will also isolate out  the lipophilic substances such as drug and produce a false result with low drug concentration.)

Yellow cap

Purple cap

Mini tubes for children.

Sky blue cap

Red cap

Mini tubes for children.

Swab -- For Influenza testing

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http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/physicians/testing-services/specialists/hospitals-lab-staff/specimen-handling/serum-plasma-whole-blood.html

Time to train your muscle.

Before.

After.

The newly born mice.

Dusty environment.
Mask, glove, apron on.

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Three of us started from 9am in the morning and done all of the transfering of our department's document at 4.30pm.

Here is the story of why we need to do all this stuff.

One day, when the staff came here to tidy up the storeroom, they found out that all the metal racks that used to classify the documents of different departments have been stolen and all the papers has been thrown to the floor.

Day by day, the management of the company finally decided to tidy up the storeroom and each department has to select few staffs to do the job.

I hope they appreciate our work.