title: Comparison of blood gas, electrolyte and metabolite results measured with two different blood gas analyzers and a core laboratory analyzer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Blood gas analyzers (BGAs) are important in assessing and monitoring critically ill patients. However, the random use of BGAs to measure blood gases, electrolytes and metabolites increases the variability in test results. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the correlation of blood gas, electrolyte and metabolite results measured with two BGAs and a core laboratory analyzer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 40 arterial blood gas samples were analyzed with two BGAs [(Nova Stat Profile Critical Care Xpress (Nova Biomedical, Waltham, MA, USA) and Siemens Rapidlab 1265 (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., Tarrytown, NY, USA)) and a core laboratory analyzer [Olympus AU 2700 autoanalyzer (Beckman-Coulter, Inc., Fullerton, CA, USA)]. The results of pH, pCO₂, pO₂, SO₂, sodium (Na⁺), potassium (K⁺), calcium (Ca⁺²), chloride (Cl⁻), glucose, and lactate were compared by Passing-Bablok regression analysis and Bland-Altman plots.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The present study showed that there was negligible variability of blood gases (pCO₂, pO₂, SO₂), K⁺ and lactate values between the blood gas and core laboratory analyzers. However, the differences in pH were modest, while Na⁺, Cl⁻, Ca²⁺ and glucose showed poor correlation according to the concordance correlation coefficient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BGAs and core laboratory autoanalyzer demonstrated variable performances and not all tests met minimum performance goals. It is important that clinicians and laboratories are aware of the limitations of their assays.
authors.affiliation: Gulhane School of Medicine, Department of Medical Biochemistry , Ankara , Turkey.
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uyanik
authors.forename: Erdim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sertoglu
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kayadibi
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tapan
authors.forename: Muhittin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Serdar
authors.forename: Cumhur
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bilgi
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kurt
mesh_terms: D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D001784:Blood Gas Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D002712:Chlorides / Q000097:blood; D004573:Electrolytes / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007773:Lactates / Q000097:blood; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011188:Potassium / Q000097:blood; D012964:Sodium / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D002712:Chlorides; D004573:Electrolytes; D007773:Lactates; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D012964:Sodium; D011188:Potassium; D010100:Oxygen; D002118:Calcium
keywords: Blood gas analyzer; electrolytes; interchangeability; metabolites; method comparison