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A member asked:
What is the difference between serum and plasma?
2 doctors weighed in across 2 answers
Collection tubes: Red topped specimen collection tubes contain no anticoagulant. Blood immediately starts to clot in these tubes. When these tubes are spun down the liquid at the top is called serum. It contains many blood proteins but no clotting factors or platelets. Blood drawn into tubes with anticoagulant such as edta can be spun to separate plasma which contains clotting factors.
Answered 8/31/2013
5.2k views
Clot vs no clot: Serum is the liquid portion of the blood that is obtained after allowing the blood to clot. Plasma is the liquid portion of the blood that is obtained by centrifugation of blood that is not allowed to clot. The difference between the two is that plasma has coagulation factors and other proteins that are not present in serum.
Answered 4/21/2015
4.9k views
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