Comparison of overall cost of plasma separation card with that of plasma preparation tube Authors Huma Qureshi Department of Gastroenterology, Doctors Plaza, Karachi, Pakistan Ghayas Hayi Doctors Lab and Diagnostic Centre, Karachi, Pakistan Amtul Quddos Latif Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratory, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan Zulfiqar Dharejo Department of Health, Communicable Disease Control, Karachi, Pakistan Syed Ejaz Alam Health Research Institute, Research Centre, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan DOI: https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.30880 Keywords: Cobas Plasma separation card, Plasma preparation tubes, HCVRNA detection Abstract For Hepatitis C Virus Ribonucleic Acid (HCVRNA) testing, blood has to be collected in plasma preparation tubes (PPT), centrifuged, refrigerated, and transported in cold chain. All these steps are time consuming and add to the testing cost. Plasma separation card (PSC) does not need any such steps. The present study was conducted to compare the cost of preparation and transportation of the PSC with that of PPT for the detection of HCVRNA. Blood samples from 100 HCV cases from one union council of Khairpur were collected in PPTs and also spotted on the PSCs and sent to the programme laboratory in Karachi (500 km distance) for HCVRNA testing. The cost for each step for PPT and PSC was taken into account. The preparation and transportation of PSC was noted to be much easier and 50% more cost effective than that of PPT. Key words: Cobas Plasma separation card, Plasma preparation tubes, HCVRNA detection. Downloads Full Text Article Published 2026-07-12 How to Cite Huma Qureshi, Hayi, G., Latif, A., Dharejo, Z., & Alam, S. (2026). Comparison of overall cost of plasma separation card with that of plasma preparation tube. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 76(8), 1351–1353. https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.30880 More Citation Formats ACM ACS APA ABNT Chicago Harvard IEEE MLA Turabian Vancouver Download Citation Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS) BibTeX Issue Vol. 76 No. 8 (2026): AUGUST Section SHORT COMMUNICATION License Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.