Drone transport has no impact on the stability of 32 biochemical components in blood samples from healthy individuals.

When blood samples for biochemical tests are collected outside the hospital the transport to the laboratory is dependent on timetables and routines of the transport companies. From islands not connected to the mainland by bridge transport is challenged and the needs of acute tests might be practically impossible to fulfill. In such situations, use of unmanned drones has great potential. In this study, a total of 19 drone flights were performed on three days in February and four days in August with an average flight time of 36 min. In blood samples from healthy volunteers (51 in February and 60 in August) we compared the results of 32 routine parameters and serum indices obtained in three identical sets of samples that were either flown by drone, driven by car or stored in the laboratory. Plasma LDH was found to increase significantly when tubes, both with and without separation gel, were transported by drone, and in August also in tubes without separation gel transported by car. The remaining tests were not affected significantly by transportation. Therefore, regulations in aviation are the major obstacles for transportation of blood samples by drones, and not the influence on analytical results. Further, we found that separation gel in itself caused increased levels of hemolysis index, LDH, potassium and phosphate, which for the latter two tests exceed our acceptance criteria as well as the impact of sample transport by drone or by car.