Abstract
The purpose of our study was to analyze the effects of temperature, time delay, and time to centrifugation on the stability of human plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) measurements. Twenty-one EDTA whole blood sample pools were centrifuged at 1100 ×g for 10minutes at 4°C either immediately or after storage for 2, 4, 8, and 24hours at 4°C or room temperature. Plasma ACTH was then measured either immediately or after 2, 4, 8, and 24hours storage at 4°C or room temperature. The change in ACTH concentrations was affected significantly (from 8.1±5.0% to 12.4±2.9% at 4hours, P<.005) by time to centrifugation at room temperature. However, it remained stable (<5% change) up to 8hours at 4°C in samples both centrifuged immediately and uncentrifuged. To get accurate values of plasma ACTH concentrations, if the samples cannot be transferred to the laboratory for analysis at room temperature within 2hours, they should be immediately stored at 4°C, and analyzed within 8hours.
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