title: An Evaluation of the Point-of-Care Analyzer, i-Smart 30, for Measurement of Electrolytes.
abstract: Analytical functioning of a point-of-care analyzer, i-Smart 30 (i-sens: Seoul, South Korea), for electrolyte quantification was investigated at Sant Parmanand Hospital, a tertiary-care hospital in Delhi, India. Samples that were received for electrolyte assay were assayed, double-blinded for their Na and K level using the arterial blood gas analyzer, the ABL 555 (Radiometer, Copenhagen) and the i-Smart 30 electrolyte analyzer. There was satisfactory correlation between the results obtained with the two analyzers with an encouraging bias, standard deviation and the 95 % limits of agreement between the data generated for Na and K levels. The performance of the i-Smart 30 would be satisfactory during the point-of-care measurements of Na and K levels in emergency rooms and clinical laboratories with inadequate infrastructure only if its day-to-day performance was monitored to ensure reliability of the generated reports.
authors.affiliation: Sant Parmanand Hospital, 18 Alipore Road, Delhi, 110054 India.
authors.forename: Subhash C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Arya
authors.affiliation: Sant Parmanand Hospital, 18 Alipore Road, Delhi, 110054 India.
authors.forename: Nirmala
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.affiliation: Sant Parmanand Hospital, 18 Alipore Road, Delhi, 110054 India.
authors.forename: Beena
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Michael
keywords: Electrolytes; Emergency investigations; Field studies; Laboratory infrastructure; Point-of-care assays