Episode Details

This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams. In this episode you will learn: - SST (Gold/Red-Gray Top) contains a clot activator and gel, requires a 30-minute clot time, and yields serum for routine chemistry panels. - PST (Light Green Top) contains lithium heparin and gel, does not require clotting, and yields plasma, making it ideal for STAT chemistry tests. - The thixotropic gel in both tubes forms a stable barrier between the liquid specimen (serum or plasma) and blood cells during centrifugation. - A common exam trap is confusing tubes with and without gel (e.g., Gold SST vs. Red Top; Light Green PST vs. Dark Green Top). - Use the mnemonic "Sunny Gold Serum" for SST and "Pistachio Light Plasma" for PST to remember the tube color and resulting specimen. For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep