Printed from acutecaretesting.org
Articles and journal scans about Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
January 2017
Determining the cause of breathlessness – how blood testing can help
Dyspnea (alternative names: breathlessness and shortness of breath) is a common reason for individuals to seek medical help either in primary care or the hospital emergency room. The possible causes are legion, so that assessment of the patient complaining of breathlessness is a common and often difficult diagnostic...
Blood gases/acid-base
D-dimer
Troponins
Natriuretic peptide
Journal Scan
November 2016
Acid-base changes during resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, the ultimate medical emergency, is cessation of blood flow to all tissues due to sudden failure of the heart to contract (pump) effectively, evident as absence of a palpable carotid pulse. A major consequential symptom is ineffective or absent breathing and therefore no pulmonary gas exchange. Reduced...
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
September 2016
Acid-base disturbances in poisoned patients
Poisoning by drugs and non-medicinal chemicals can cause a variety of disturbances to acid-base homeostasis, so that the initial emergency room (ER) assessment of poisoned patients often includes arterial blood gas analysis.
This recently published clinical study of acid-base disturbances in poisoned patients was...
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
September 2016
Is venous blood an acceptable alternative to arterial blood for blood gas analysis – and can pulse oximetry help make it so?
Blood gas analysis, which involves measurement of three parameters: blood pH, pCO2 and pO2, is almost unique among routine blood tests in its requirement for arterial blood. All other blood tests are performed on venous blood or occasionally, capillary blood.
Collection of arterial blood is technically more demanding ...
Blood gases/acid-base
Preanalytical phase
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
August 2016
Diabetic ketoacidosis
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is an acute, potentially life-threatening complication of poorly controlled diabetes, is the subject of a recent comprehensive review article.
The authors discuss epidemiological issues, revealing increasing incidence of DKA and decreasing mortality.
Once inevitably fatal, DKA...
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
August 2016
Acid-base assessment of patients receiving hemodialysis
In regulating blood bicarbonate concentration the kidneys play a central role in acid-base homeostasis, and severe renal failure causes metabolic acidosis.
This is a disturbance of acid-base characterized by primary reduction in blood bicarbonate and pH, and secondary (compensatory) decrease in pCO2.
One of the aims...
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
August 2016
Alcoholic ketoacidosis – a case report
Three parameters generated during blood gas analysis, pH, pCO2 and bicarbonate, provide the means for assessment of patient acid-base status, which is frequently disturbed in the acutely/critically ill.
Four broad classes of acid-base disturbance are recognized: metabolic acidosis, respiratory acidosis, metabolic...
Blood gases/acid-base
Article
May 2016
Useful tips to avoid preanalytical errors in blood gas testing: pH, pCO2 and pO2
The measurement of the parameters pH, pCO2 and pO2 is vulnerable to a number of preanalytical errors and this article shares practical tips to help avoid these errors, ensuring that the results of analysis accurately reflect the patient’s acid-base and oxygenation status.
The tips include the removal of air bubbles, ...
Preanalytical phase
Quality assurance
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
May 2016
Methanol causes severe anion gap metabolic acidosis – a case study
This recently published case study report provides a reminder that blood gas analysis plays an important role in the emergency room assessment of unconscious patients and that disturbance of acid-base homeostasis can be attributable to ingestion of toxic chemicals.
The case concerns a 37-year old non-insulin dependant ...
Blood gases/acid-base
Journal Scan
January 2016
Extreme acidosis and mortality – a retrospective clinical study
Health demands that blood pH is maintained within narrow limits (7.35-7.45). Acidosis (i.e. pH <7.35) is a common feature of many acute/critical conditions that warrant admission to intensive care. pH <6.8 is commonly reported in medical texts as incompatible with life, but there are rare individual case reports of...
Lactate
Blood gases/acid-base