Influence of Haemolysis on the Mineral Profile of Cattle Serum
Belén Larrán,
Marta Miranda,
Carlos Herrero-Latorre,
Lucas Rigueira,
Víctor Pereira,
María Luisa Suárez,
Marta López-Alonso
Affiliations
Belén Larrán
Department of Anatomy, Animal Production and Clinical Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Marta Miranda
Department of Anatomy, Animal Production and Clinical Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Carlos Herrero-Latorre
Research Institute on Chemical and Biological Analysis, Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Bromatology Department, Faculty of Sciences, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Lucas Rigueira
Department of Anatomy, Animal Production and Clinical Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Víctor Pereira
Department of Animal Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
María Luisa Suárez
Department of Anatomy, Animal Production and Clinical Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Marta López-Alonso
Department of Animal Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary, Campus Terra, University of Santiago de Compostela, 27002 Lugo, Spain
Haemolysis of serum samples is the leading cause of preanalytical errors in clinical laboratories. Little is known about the potential alterations in the concentrations of mineral elements in haemolyzed serum and the phenomenon has not been specifically studied in bovine serum samples. We investigate how haemolysis affects the mineral content of bovine samples. We used ICP-MS to measure the concentrations of 12 mineral elements (Ca, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, P, Se and Zn) in bovine whole blood, serum and gradually haemolyzed samples and observed significant differences between the different types of samples, particularly in the Fe and Zn concentrations. However, in practice, the high interindividual variability makes it difficult to establish whether a given value corresponds to normal or haemolyzed samples. In response to this problem, we propose to consider that a result is significantly biased when the haemolysis threshold (the degree of haemolysis above which the concentration of an element in serum is significantly altered) of a given element is surpassed. The haemolysis threshold values for the different elements considered were found as follows: 0.015 g Hb L−1 for Fe, 2 g for Zn, 4 g for Cr and 8 g for Ca, Se and Mo.
