Is time a significant factor in the release of potassium from lithium heparin plasma and serum?

What is it about?

In their 2024 manuscript published in PLOS One, Reuter et al. present a study on the impact of time until centrifugation and the type of sample material on the concentration of potassium. They describe the increase of potassium over time before centrifugation and higher concentrations in serum than in lithium-heparin plasma. While these findings are well known since decades, the authors draw wrong conclusions from their study, potentially leading to wrong classification of hyperkalemia and impaired patient safety. We re-analysed the data of Reuter et al. in order to shed a critical light on the conclusions drawn in the paper.

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