You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

If a blood sample is haemolysed laboratory results will be difficult to interpret

Haemolysis is a common problem in blood samples collected for laboratory analysis, and unfortunately this will affect many test results, making interpretation difficult. Results that may be affected depend upon the methodology used and  include the following :

• Haematology
  • Increased Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC)
  • Decreased Red Blood Cell (RBC) Count
  • Decreased Packed Cell Volume (PCV) 
• Blood Chemistry
  • Increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST)
  • Increased cholesterol
  • Increased glucose
  • Increased lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH₁)
  • Increased phosphate
  • Increased potassium
  • Increased total plasma protein (Biuret method or using a refractometer)
  • Increased or Decreased  lipase
  • Decreased alkaline phosphatase (ALP)
  • Decreased calcium
  • Decreased bilirubin - sometimes
  • Decreased insulin

Diagnostic laboratories should always report when they receive a blood sample for analysis that is haemolysed. Clinicians should always take into consideration the above changes when interpreting laboratory results from haemolysed blood samples.

Last updated : October 2013