A clinical requirement for determination of the pH and base deficit (BD) of umbilical-cord arterial blood has ensured a role for the blood gas analyzer in the delivery suite of obstetric units.  The principal objective of this testing in the minutes immediately after birth is to identify those babies who have been...

The D-dimer blood test is a clinical laboratory test that is also increasingly available at the point of care, most often the hospital emergency room. Over the past decade or so the test has become established for emergency room assessment of patients suspected of suffering deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism,...

Cirrhosis of the liver is associated with increased respiration (hyperventilation) and consequent hypocapnic respiratory alkalosis. The severity of this acid-base disturbance correlates with severity of cirrhosis as well as severity of the abnormal hyperdynamic systemic circulation that characterizes this irreversible ...

In health plasma sodium concentration is maintained within the approximate reference range, 135-145 mmol/L (mEq/L). Hyponatremia (defined as plasma sodium The vast majority of affected patients have mild to moderate hyponatremia (plasma sodium in the range of 120-134 mmol/L), which is usually asymptomatic, especially ...

Practically all victims of significant trauma will have blood sampled for plasma potassium estimation soon after admission to hospital emergency departments. But what is the frequency and significance of abnormal potassium results at admission for these trauma patients?  That was the question addressed in design of a...

In health serum total calcium concentration is maintained within the approximate reference range of 2.15-2.60 mmol/L largely by the synergistic action of two hormones: parathyroid hormone (PTH) and the vitamin-D-derived hormone, calcitriol. These two hormones control absorption of dietary calcium from the gut, renal...

It is rare indeed for change in medical practice to be based on the evidence of a single clinical study. But that is exactly what happened in 2001 following publication of a study conducted at the intensive care unit of a hospital in Leuven, Belgium.  Results of the now celebrated Leuven study indicated that...

Potassium, the most frequently measured electrolyte in clinical practice is, in health, maintained at a blood serum concentration within the approximate reference range of 3.5 to 5.2 mmol/L. Physiological control of this potassium concentration depends crucially on the ability of the healthy kidney to regulate...

Health demands that the pH of blood is maintained within a narrow range (7.35-7.45). Monitoring this physiological imperative and detection of so-called acid-base disturbance, in which blood pH is either increased or decreased, is one of the principal clinical utilities of blood gas analysis.  Metabolic acidosis – one ...

As the authors of a recent wide-ranging review of the subject make clear, point-of-care testing (POCT) has greatly expanded, in terms of both prevalence and functionality, over past decades. They report a predicted average growth rate in the use of POCT in the US of >15 % over the coming years.  The three authors (one ...