● Difficulty in obtaining a venous sample, resulting in haemolysis or small clots in the sample.
● Delay in testing the plasma and leaving the sample at room temperature.
● Using tubes or pipettes which are not clean and dry or are contaminated with detergent. Whenever possible use disposable tubes.
● Not timing accurately the different stages of the test (a stop-watch must be used).
● Using unsatisfactory reagents (will be detected when testing control plasma).
● Not pipetting correct volumes of plasma and reagents.
● Reconstituting reagents and control plasma with contaminated deionized water.