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...

Increased blood glucose concentration (hyperglycemia) is an essential diagnostic feature of diabetes, and normalization of blood glucose is the principal aim of diabetes treatment. Hyperglycemia can also occur in the non-diabetic population when normal hormonal control of blood glucose concentration is disturbed by...

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...

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...

Serum bilirubin estimation, which has for some years now been available on point-of-care analyzers, including blood gas analyzers, is probably the most frequently requested blood test in neonatal medicine.  This is because increased serum/plasma bilirubin concentration (hyperbilirubinemia) and consequent jaundice is...

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...

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...

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a common acute and potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes that results from insulin deficiency, is characterized by raised blood glucose (hyperglycemia) and metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis occurs due to abnormal accumulation in blood of ketoacids, principally...

The necessary administration of image-enhancing agents to patients prior to radiological investigation is associated with risk of two serious adverse effects: nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) and contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN). The risk only applies to those patients with renal disease, either acute kidney...

Many hospitals have a pneumatic tube system (PTS) that is routinely used to transport blood samples rapidly to the central laboratory, but the notion that such systems can be used to transport samples destined for blood gas analysis is challenged by the results of a recent study.  This prospective study, focusing on...