Overview of Vacuum Blood Collection Tubes: PET vs Glass

Vacuum blood collection tubes are disposable, sealed blood sampling vessels widely used in clinical laboratories. They rely on preset negative vacuum inside the tube to automatically draw a fixed volume of venous blood, replacing traditional manual blood extraction.

Main types: Plain Tube, EDTA Tube, Pro-Coagulation Tube, ESR Tube, PT Tube, Glucose Tube, Heparin Tube, Gel&Clot Activator Tube.

The two mainstream raw materials are PET plastic and glass (GLASS):

PET tubes: Shatterproof, lightweight, suitable for emergency, mobile physical examination and routine biochemical/immunoassay. They support low-temperature freezing but have a shorter shelf life due to slight gas permeability.

Glass tubes: Dense wall with zero gas penetration, stable vacuum and long storage life. They produce minimal interference for high-precision tests including trace elements, hormones and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), yet carry breakage risks during transportation.

Different colored tube caps represent internal additives for distinct testing purposes, such as gel coagulant, EDTA anticoagulant and sodium citrate. After blood collection, specimens can be directly centrifuged and tested, ensuring standardized sampling, stable sample quality and effective prevention of cross-contamination.