Measurements of pH, pCO₂ and pO₂ of arterial blood during blood gas analysis are all made at normal body temperature, 37 °C. The sample is warmed to that temperature prior to analysis. Blood gas analyzers provide the option for these primary measurements to be automatically "corrected" to the patient’s actual body...

Modern blood gas analyzers have incorporated technology that allows spectrophotometric measurement of bilirubin concentration on the same whole-blood sample that is used to measure blood gas parameters. A recent French multicenter study confirms the reliability of this technique for measuring bilirubin during the...

Hemorrhage, due to a reduction in the coaguability of blood, is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among trauma victims and the critically ill in general. Reduced blood pH (acidosis) is also common in these patient groups. Previous studies have shown that acidosis is an independent risk factor for development...

Pulse oximetry provides the means for continuous non-invasive monitoring of oxygen saturation (SpO₂). Although not currently used for the purpose, recent international guidelines suggest that pulse oximetry may be useful in the assessment of newborns who require urgent resuscitative measures at the time of birth....

Conventionally, arterial blood is sampled for blood gas analysis, but if the purpose is to assess acid-base balance, venous blood may be an acceptable alternative. That is the main conclusion of a recently published study conducted at the intensive care units of two Melbourne hospitals.  The objective of the study was ...

Hospital do Coração (HCor) in São Paolo, Brazil is a hospital for cardiac patients, many of whom are children and newborns. Cardiac patients are closely monitored with respect to acid base and blood gases, and even the newborns have several arterial and venous blood samples drawn daily. Dr Alberto Duarte from the...

The principal function of the protein hemoglobin contained in red blood cells is transport of oxygen in inspired air from lungs to tissue cells. Although normally present in only trace amounts, there are three species of hemoglobin that cannot transport oxygen. The three species, collectively called the dyshemoglobins ...

One of the principal clinical uses of blood gas analysis is assessment of patient acid-base status, but over the years controversy has dogged understanding of the principles of acid-base physiology and interpretation of blood gas results.  In a brief review of the history of clinical acid-base balance, the author...

The maintenance of normal blood pH depends crucially on synergy of action between lungs and kidneys, so that students of acid-base physiology must become familiar with the interrelatedness of kidney and lung function in both health and disease.  This interrelatedness is the central theme of a recently published review ...

In Geneva in 1821, a French nobleman Jacques Alexandre Le Jumeau, Vicomte de Kergaradec, became the pioneer of modern fetal monitoring. He described the sound of the fetal heartbeat, as he used the newly invented stethoscope (by Laennec, France 1819) and applied it to the abdominal wall of a pregnant woman [1]. The...