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Articles and journal scans about Quality assurance
Journal Scan
April 2013
Red-cell transfusion for the critically ill – is fresh best?
Anemia is a common feature of critical illness and roughly a third of all patients being cared for in intensive care units are given red-cell transfusion. Although such transfusions are unequivocally lifesaving for some patients, e.g. the exsanguinating trauma victim, the benefit is less clear-cut for others.
There...
Process optimization
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
April 2013
In favor of point-of-care sodium measurement
When monitoring the plasma/serum sodium concentration of sick newborn babies in neonatal intensive care units, it may be preferable to use direct ion-specific electrode (ISE) methodology incorporated in point-of-care analyzers (including blood gas analyzers), rather than the indirect ISE methodology commonly employed...
Neonatology
Point-of-care testing
Quality assurance
Electrolytes
Journal Scan
October 2012
Choice of blood gas syringe – does it matter?
The preanalytical phase of laboratory testing has long been recognized as a stage for potential error, and blood gas analysis is a test that is well-recognized as being particularly vulnerable in this regard. Much research has been directed at devising procedures that minimize variability of measured blood gas...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Preanalytical phase
Journal Scan
April 2012
Repeat testing – is it necessary?
Clinical laboratories usually have a policy for repeat testing when the test result is either grossly abnormal or unexpected in terms of recent validated test results for that particular patient. The rationale for this policy is that the first test result may represent a clinically significant analytical error, which...
Process optimization
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
April 2012
The dangers of oxygen therapy – hyperoxia and mortality
By measurement of the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (pO2(a)) and oxygen saturation in arterial blood (sO2(a)), blood gas analysis provides the means for monitoring supplemental oxygen therapy. Oxygen is prescribed in many medical emergencies in which tissue oxygenation is threatened because of...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
April 2012
Increased laboratory testing of trauma patients
A significant increase in the use of blood tests for the management of trauma patients has had little overall effect in terms of survival following trauma, or the length of time those who survive have to spend in hospital.
This is a headline finding from a recently published study examining the clinical impact of...
Process optimization
Quality assurance
Preanalytical phase
Journal Scan
January 2012
Adult reference intervals for blood gases
The clinical value of any patient test result depends on the quality of the reference interval used for its comparison (interpretation), so that good laboratory medicine practice demands continuous review of reference intervals. There is a paucity of published study aimed at validating the health-associated reference...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
January 2012
Discordance between measured and calculated bicarbonate - a case study
Plasma bicarbonate concentration, a parameter generated during arterial blood gas analysis, is essential to the assessment of patient acid-base status. Blood gas analyzers do not have the capacity to directly measure bicarbonate; instead, it is calculated from measured pH and pCO2(a), using the Henderson-Hasselbalch...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Electrolytes
Journal Scan
January 2012
Venous versus arterial blood for gas analysis
Although arterial blood remains the gold standard sample for blood gas analysis, it is, compared with peripheral venous blood, a more difficult sample to obtain, and its collection is more painful and hazardous for the patient. These considerations have fuelled a growing interest in study aimed at establishing if...
Blood gases/acid-base
Preanalytical phase
Quality assurance
Journal Scan
July 2011
Falsely low SpO2 - an educative case study present
Blood gas analysis (BGA) provides the means for the most accurate assessment of patient oxygenation status; the two relevant blood gas parameters being partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (pO2(a)), and % hemoglobin oxygen saturation (sO2(a)).
Pulse oximetry, a technology now ubiquitous in all areas of...
Blood gases/acid-base
Quality assurance
Hemoglobins