Comparison of the effect of direct venipuncture and venous catheter blood sampling methods on the biochemical results of patients hospitalized in CCU

Background: Diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation of patients hospitalized in the coronary care unit (CCU) requires frequent blood sampling. Following the routine schedule of the ward means using new intravenous lines for each blood sample, which causes damage and pain in patients. With this background in mind, this study aimed to compare the effect of blood sampling through direct venipuncture and venous catheter on the blood biochemical results of patients hospitalized in the CCU.

Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 80 hospitalized patients in the CCU were selected through purposive sampling in one of the teaching hospitals of Zahedan, Iran in 2015. At first, 5 cc of blood was obtained via a venous catheter, and the same volume was collected by direct venipuncture from the other hand of the patients to conduct biochemical tests. Samples were assessed in terms of glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, sodium, potassium, urea, creatinine and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16.0 using paired t-test and Pearson’s correlation-coefficient.

Results: In this study, no statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups of venous catheter and direct venipuncture in terms of the levels of glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, sodium, potassium and CRP. However, a significant difference was found in the level of urea (P=0.004) and creatinine between the study groups (P=0.015).

Conclusion: According to the results, venous catheter can be used to obtain reliable blood samples for laboratory assessments. Nevertheless, given the significant difference between the levels of urea and creatinine, it is recommended that further studies be conducted to compare the two blood sampling methods in this regard.