The effect of sex, deviation from ideal weight and sampling time on blood constituents in presumably healthy subjects.

In order to verify the influence of sampling time on blood constituents, populations of supposedly healthy subjects were grouped according to age, sex, deviation from their ideal weight, state of fasting or nonfasting, and time of sampling. Each fasting subject in one group underwent two samplings during the course of a morning: the first at 08.00 and the second between 09.00 and 12.00. In the second group, the first was taken at 13.00, and the second between 14.00 and 16.00. Subjects in the second group had eaten a standard meal of 700 calories at 12.00. Differences between the paired samples from a given individual are discussed with respect to the time of sampling for plasma urea, creatinine, proteins, albumin, calcium, sodium, potassium, cholesterol, uric acid, chloride ions, phosphate, bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, alkaline phosphatase, hemoglobin and erythrocyte and leukocyte counts. Variations due to the time of sampling were large for phosphorus, bilirubin, and leukocyte count.