1 Department of Pediatrics, Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, 3395 Scranton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44109
2 Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio
Speciously low hematocrit levels were found in 1,500 children studied in Project Head Start because an inadequate volume of blood was placed in commercially prepared tubes containing 9 mg Na2 EDTA intended to anticoagulate 7 ml of blood. This error may be made by those drawing blood from small children and may be an often unsuspected source of inaccuracy in hematocrit determinations.