Arterial blood gases (ABG), a clinical test that involves measurement of the pH of arterial blood and the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolved in arterial blood, is routinely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of predominantly critically/acutely ill patients being cared for in hospital emergency rooms and...

Many authors contend that drawing of umbilical ABGs is a simple method to evaluate the condition of the neonate and ideally would be routinely done for all newborns [13]. Other authors disagree. Appropriate general principles guide clinicians when drawing and interpreting ABGs for all patients. The special needs of...

BACKGROUND: Hospitals in countries with public health systems have recently adopted organizational changes to improve efficiency and resource allocation, and reducing inappropriate hospitalizations has been established as an important goal, as well as avoiding or buffering overcrowding in Emergency Departments. AIMS: ...

Calcium is an essential mineral required for numerous biological functions. In circulation, calcium is found in three different fractions, anion-bound, protein-bound and free or ”ionized”. The amount of calcium in each of these fractions is dependent on the concentration of hydrogen ions, anions and plasma proteins....

Diagnosing heart failure (HF) in patients presenting in primary care is difficult. Clinical assessment of symptoms and signs has limited sensitivity and specificity. NT-proBNP determination has been proven to be useful and accurate for ruling out the diagnosis of systolic HF, and some have even proposed different...

Chris Price and Andrew St John have followed their book Point-of-Care Testing for Managers and Policymakers with another look at the subject from strategic vision to change management and implementation in Point-of-Care Testing: Making Innovation Work for Patient-Centered Care. In their latest book the authors give...

Clinical biomarker studies seldom follow recommendations for the evaluation of new biomarkers. Therefore it is important to assess any published clinical value of a biomarker or comparison of two or more biomarkers and see whether or not the published study applies to your situation. If the published study does not...

The term acidosis was first mentioned in the medical literature in 1898 in connection with the description of diabetic ketoacidosis. Alkalosis was first used in human medicine in 1922 by the English physiologist J. S. Haldane; it had been used in veterinary medicine somewhat earlier. In 1870, the Norwegians C. M....

Test results, essential for quality healthcare, constitute more than 70% of patients’ health records. Because quality results are so important, governments around the world mandate a series of laboratory practices to ensure quality.  All laboratories in the United States follow the Clinical Laboratory Improvement...

When collecting blood for blood gas analysis, it is important to remove air bubbles from syringes to avoid erroneous results, especially for pO₂, with a number of factors affecting the potential magnitude of the interference to pO₂ by air bubbles.  In this study, we calculate the expected theoretical changes in pO₂...