An important consideration in mechanistic research using biomarkers should include the use of saliva as an alternative to blood. The use of saliva would allow the study of susceptible populations such as older adults where venipuncture may not be feasible. Although saliva has been most commonly used to measure cortisol and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), there is limited evidence that other cyt...

Background: Pain is described as the fifth vital sign, and inadequate pain management is linked to numerous immediate and long-term negative outcomes. Venipuncture is one of the most painful medical procedures in children. Distraction is one of the most effective ways to relieve pain. Reducing patients’ pain is important for all nurses for many reasons. Unnecessary pain can damage the nurse-...

Background Although fingerstick is often favorably compared to venipuncture as a less invasive method of drawing blood for clinical labs, there little empirical research that compares physical and psychological stress responses vs. (blood draw using needle in the arm) within same person. Methods findings We assessed changes cortisol (a hormone), heart rate variability marker autonomic stress), ...

Although a serious impediment in haemophilia patients, difficulty accessing peripheral veins has received little attention in clinical studies. New peripheral vein visualization devices could potentially ameliorate difficult venous access (DVA), but their utility remains unproved. The study aim was to survey the frequency, causes and clinical manifestations of DVA and evaluate the clinical util...

To assess the risk of contamination, we reviewed retrospectively 1,408 matched pairs of simultaneous catheter-drawn and venipuncture blood cultures. Catheter-drawn cultures were equally likely to be truly positive (14.4 versus 13.7%) but more likely to be contaminated (3.8 versus 1.8% [P = 0.001]). Direct venipuncture cultures are preferred.

abstract introduction humans in the last trimester of gestation are assumed to be in a pain-free environment in the womb, but those neonates who are born preterm often spend weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) and undergo numerous painful procedures as part of their routine care. materials and methods in this semi-experimental study, 70 preterm infants born at average 32 to 36 week...

A new US Food and Drug Administration-cleared needleless blood collection device (PIVO; Velano Vascular, San Francisco, CA) for short peripheral catheters was compared with conventional venipuncture for collecting blood samples for routine laboratory analysis from adult healthy volunteers. The PIVO device was comparable with venipuncture in terms of providing high-integrity samples (no hemolysi...

Anxiety associated with blood and injections is a common problem in medical settings and, in severe cases, affects sufferers' ability to receive medically essential treatment. The present study was conducted to examine incidence of adverse reactions to venipunctures among phlebotomy patients, as well as to understand the demographic and psychological characteristics associated with such reactio...

Paired blood samples were collected from the ear and radial vein of four captive healthy adult black rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis). Samples were collected using heparin or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as an anticoagulant. Packed cell volume (PCV) and total protein (TP) values were compared between samples drawn from the two venipuncture sites and treated with the two anticoagulants ...