title: Evaluation of the HemoCue plasma haemoglobin analyser for assessing haemolysis in red cell concentrates during storage.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the HemoCue plasma haemoglobin (Hb) analyser for determining supernatant Hb in red cell concentrates (RCC) during storage and compare this to a spectrophotometric method.
  
  
  METHODS
  Samples from RCC (n = 20) at days 0, 7, 21, 35 and 42 of storage were tested by both methods for supernatant Hb.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results are given as median with range. There was a significant correlation (r = 0.97, P < 0.0001), but statistically significant difference between the two methods (0.72 (0.36-2.77) spectrophotometric vs. 0.70 (0.3-2.6) g/l HemoCue). However, the mean bias was negligible at 0.06 g/l. The HemoCue method gave a interassay coefficient of variation of 5.6% at 1.2 g/l and was linear to at least 20 g/l.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HemoCue plasma haemoglobin analyser is a simple, rapid, reliable and accurate method for the determination of supernatant Hb in RCC at the end of storage and compares well to established methods for supernatant Hb measurement.
authors.affiliation: National Blood Service, Brentwood, UK. rebecca.cardigan@nbs.nhs.uk
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cardigan
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006452:Hemoglobinometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis*; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins