Clinical laboratories should have a policy mandating staff involved in analysis of patient samples to convey critical results to clinical staff urgently, usually by telephone. A critical result has been defined as a result "at such variance with normal as to be life threatening, unless something is done promptly, and...

Arterial blood is the standard sample for measurement of pH, pCO₂ and pO₂, but collection of arterial blood can be painful. Furthermore, it is a procedure associated with some risk to the patient and can therefore only be performed by trained, medically qualified staff.   Capillary blood collection by finger or...

Blood gas analysis of umbilical cord blood provides the means for establishing the acid-base status of babies at the time of birth. If there is to be any delay in sampling, the portion of cord from which the sample is to be taken should be double-clamped and thereby isolated from the placenta.  Previous studies have...

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...

In 2001 a landmark study demonstrated that normalization of blood glucose significantly reduces mortality and morbidity among intensive care patients. Now 5 years on, strict control of blood glucose concentration with insulin therapy is accepted as an imperative of optimal intensive care in many hospitals around the...

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...

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...

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 ...

Transient hyperglycemia (raised blood glucose concentration) is a common feature of serious acute illness, including myocardial infarction. For many years, this so-called "stress hyperglycemia" was considered of little clinical significance unless it was particularly severe (blood glucose > 12 mmol/L) or associated...

Reduced blood glucose (hypoglycemia) is one of the more common metabolic emergencies during the neonatal period, which in a small minority of cases results in permanent brain damage. It remains unclear how low blood glucose concentration must fall for such devastating effect. This gray area of understanding is...