title: Evaluation of a fully automated end-tidal carbon monoxide instrument for breath analysis.
abstract: We evaluated a novel, portable breath sampler/CO-quantifying instrument [Baby's Breath Carbon Monoxide Analyzer (BB); Natus Medical], developed for use at the bedside or with gas samples collected into bags. Bench tests demonstrated that the CO measurements were linear, accurate, and precise when compared with gas chromatography (GC) results. In vivo tests (n = 30) performed with adults showed excellent correlation between end-tidal breath CO measurements (ETCO) corrected for inhaled CO (ETCOc) as determined by BB and GC. Breath sampling efficiency was 96%. ETCOc measurements and blood carboxyhemoglobin fractions (% of total hemoglobin) corrected for inhaled CO (COHbc) correlated strongly: COHbc = 0.25 ETCOc--0.01 microL/L CO (r2 = 0.97, Sy/x = 0.47, SE slope = 0.01, n = 30). The imprecision, assessed by the mean of the population's CV for triplicate determinations, was 11%. Measurements with healthy and hemolytic term newborns showed that ETCOc values of > 3 microL/L correlated with known hemolytic conditions. We conclude that this instrument is clinically reliable and can be used to noninvasively measure ETCO in neonates and adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305, USA. henk vreman <hf.txg@forsythe.stanford.edu>
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Vreman
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000295:instrumentation; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology; D013990:Tidal Volume
chemical_list: D002248:Carbon Monoxide