What colour tube do you use for a rheumatoid blood test?

• Sterile Blood Cultures are drawn first
• Light Blue - for coagulation tests (ie when a person is taking blood thinners)
• Gold (or Red plastic tubes*) - for tests needing serum instead of whole blood or plasma**
• Green - for some of the chemistry tests
• Purple/Violet- hematology tests (CBC, ESR…)
• Grey- for blood sugar tests

Some labs vary the sequence slightly (ie gold/red before blue), but this is CLSI's order of draw. Some people, unfortunately, pay no attention to the importance of order, and bounce back and forth between different colors of tubes. When that happens, it might be worth taking the time to ask some questions or find a different lab.

My rheumatologist usually orders tests for gold, green, and purple test tubes.