Blood gas analysis, which involves measurement of three parameters: blood pH, pCO₂ and pO₂, is almost unique among routine blood tests in its requirement for arterial blood. All other blood tests are performed on venous blood or occasionally, capillary blood. Collection of arterial blood is technically more demanding ...

Sepsis and septic shock are related consequences of infection that together are a common cause of serious morbidity and high mortality around the world. Survival after sepsis/septic shock depends on rapid diagnosis and treatment with intense monitoring in a critical care unit. Following a 2-year expert appraisal of...

This first of two articles on understanding the clinical value of measuring urea concentration dives into the physiological topics, such as urea production and renal processing of urea as well as the causes of increased and reduced urea concentration. Kidney disease is associated with reduced urea excretion and...

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is an acute, potentially life-threatening complication of poorly controlled diabetes, is the subject of a recent comprehensive review article.   The authors discuss epidemiological issues, revealing increasing incidence of DKA and decreasing mortality.  Once inevitably fatal, DKA...

In regulating blood bicarbonate concentration the kidneys play a central role in acid-base homeostasis, and severe renal failure causes metabolic acidosis. This is a disturbance of acid-base characterized by primary reduction in blood bicarbonate and pH, and secondary (compensatory) decrease in pCO₂. One of the aims...

Phototherapy, the standard treatment for neonatal jaundice, is guided by age-related serum bilirubin concentration; the older the baby, the higher is the recommended triggering serum bilirubin concentration. So that for example, UK guidelines state that for a full-term baby who is 12 hours old, phototherapy should be ...

Serum sodium concentration is normally maintained within the approximate reference range of 135-145 mmol/L.Abnormal sodium concentration (dysnatremia), which is a relatively common feature of critical illness – affecting 10-20 % of intensive care patients – is associated with adverse outcome for this patient group....

Three parameters generated during blood gas analysis, pH, pCO₂ and bicarbonate, provide the means for assessment of patient acid-base status, which is frequently disturbed in the acutely/critically ill. Four broad classes of acid-base disturbance are recognized: metabolic acidosis, respiratory acidosis, metabolic...

Blood gas analysis provides the means for assessing patient oxygenation status by measurement of two parameters: the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (pO₂(a)) and % oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood (sO₂(a)). Most accurate reflection of in vivo pO₂(a) and sO₂(a)  requires that measurement...

This recently published case study report provides a reminder that blood gas analysis plays an important role in the emergency room assessment of unconscious patients and that disturbance of acid-base homeostasis can be attributable to ingestion of toxic chemicals. The case concerns a 37-year old non-insulin dependant ...