Clinical Chemistry

In general, serum/plasma is used for clinical chemistry.

Serum is obtained from whole blood by centrifugation after completion of the coagulation process. It is devoid of clotting factors, but enriched with the cellular components of platelets and metabolic products.

Heparinised plasma is the virtually cell-free supernatant following centrifugation of whole blood, the coagulability of which is inhibited by the addition of heparin immediately after blood collection.