Preanalytical errors are quite frequent in the area of point-of-care testing (POCT). There are many reasons for that. First of all, POCT testing is usually performed by clinical staff (i.e. nurses and physicians), who are neither so skilled nor educated for laboratory work as laboratory professionals. Moreover,...

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...

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...

Unless suffering some unrelated acute/critical illness, diabetic patients are only usually submitted for arterial blood gas analysis if they are suspected of suffering diabetic ketoacidosis, the potentially life-threatening acute complication of diabetes that is almost invariably associated with severe hyperglycemia....

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...

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...

Differentiating self-limiting from serious lower-respiratory-tract infections (LRTI) based on medical history and physical examination is challenging in primary care. Many family physicians (FPs) empirically prescribe antibiotics to most LRTI patients.  The use of C-reactive protein (CRP) point-of-care testing as an...

Sepsis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity for hospitalized patients around the world. Early intervention can reduce mortality and morbidity from severe sepsis, but signs and symptoms of sepsis are non-specific. Point-of-care lactate has proved to be an invaluable tool for some institutions in standardized...

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...