Quick question — we still call the SST a “tiger top” in our lab even though the cap’s solid gold now; was that nickname only for the old red/black speckled cap, or did it originally mean a specific gel recipe? It feels like ordering paint swatches instead of tubes, and I can’t find a straight answer on the rack next to the 23g butterflies.
It started with the old speckled stoppers; we still use ‘tiger top’ as shorthand for SST, not a gel recipe. I solved the confusion by labeling the bin ‘SST – gold (tiger top) – clot activator + gel’ so floaters grab the right tube. Which vendor are you on now, since BD vs Greiner gels behave a bit differently?
Pretty sure it’s just the cap pattern nickname, not a special gel — BD went solid gold, but the thixotropic polymer’s the same. I slapped a label on the rack by the 23g butterflies: “SST (gold) – serum separator,” and keep plain reds for drug levels since gel can soak some analytes. @MobileTia, also watch the orange RST tubes (thrombin) so they don’t creep into routine chem.