Influence of pneumatic tube system transport on cell count and spectrophotometry in cerebrospinal fluid.

Pneumatic tube systems (PTS) are routinely used in many hospitals for transporting collected body fluid samples and to reduce turnaround time. However, their use for transport of CSF is not widespread, in part due to ambiguous or non-existing data regarding possible impact on sample stability caused by PTS. This study investigates the effect of PTS transport on cell counts in CSF as well as on haemolysis. No statistical differences were observed on cell count for erythrocytes, leukocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, or monocytes as well as on haemolysis measured as absorbance at 415 nm. Therefore, it should be possible to use a PTS to transport CSF for these analyses.