Pregnancy is associated with significant anatomical and physiological change in order to both accommodate and sustain the developing fetus. As this literature review article written by two Australian obstetricians makes clear, pregnancy-associated physiological change affects the blood concentration of a range of...

One of the most significant developments in laboratory medicine over the past few decades has been application of point-of-care testing (POCT). Technological advance allows an ever-increasing repertoire of in vitro diagnostic and monitoring tests to be performed outside the laboratory, at the patient’s bedside, in the ...

One of the utilities of arterial blood gas analysis (BGA) is to assess patient blood oxygenation status. The two principal parameters generated during BGA that allow this assessment are: partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood (pO₂(a)) and the percentage of functional hemoglobin in arterial blood that is...

Disturbance of blood calcium concentration is a common feature of many critical illnesses; prevalence studies suggest for example that 50-85 % of patients admitted to intensive/critical care have some degree of hypocalcemia (reduced blood calcium concentration). So monitoring and correction of blood calcium, where...

Arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis allows full assessment of patient acid-base status predominantly via the following three parameters generated during the analysis: arterial blood pH; partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood pCO₂(a); and concentration of bicarbonate (HCO₃) in arterial blood. Two of these...

Arterial blood gas analysis has two clinical utilities: assessment of blood oxygenation status and assessment of acid-base status. Assessment of acid-base status depends on measurement of pH and partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) in a sample of arterial blood using electrodes housed in the blood gas analyzer,...

Data collected during a multicenter phase-3 clinical trial of a novel drug treatment for hyperkalemia (raised blood potassium) has provided a serendipitous opportunity to examine the variability of plasma potassium measurement. The trial required recruitment of patients with plasma potassium in the hyperkalemic range...

Blood glucose concentration is normally maintained within the approximate reference range of 3.5-8.5 mmol/L (63-153 mg/dL) largely by the synergistic opposing action of two pancreatic hormones: insulin and glucagon. Insulin secretion, induced by rising blood glucose concentration, causes it to fall; whilst glucagon...

Arterial blood gases and other “acute care” biochemical blood tests are frequently ordered during recovery from cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest, sudden loss of blood flow consequent on cessation of heart activity, is the ultimate medical emergency, frequently exploited for the dramatic nature of its presentation...

Decreased resources coupled with increased demand represents a major problem for healthcare providers that is most publicly manifest in overstretched hospital emergency room (ER) departments around the world. Prolonged waiting times and extended periods of overcrowding in ER, which are increasingly the norm, result in ...