Article PDF :

Veiw Full Text PDF

Article type :

Original Article

Author :

Dipti Basavaraj Sanakal, Sagar Chandrakant Mhetre, Ramesh S Patil, Abdul Kayyum Shaikh

Volume :

3

Issue :

4

Abstract :

Background: Electrolyte and blood gas analysis are essential for most patients who are admitted in the casualty. Routinely simultaneous arterial and venous sample would be sent to the laboratory for blood gas analysis and serum electrolytes respectively. Electrolytes can also be measured   by the blood gas analyzer. We wanted to find out if these values were reliable. Methods: This study has been checked and permitted by the hospital ethics committee. We obtained two samples, one venous and one arterial sample from patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and casualty of Ashwini rural medical college, hospital and research centre, (ARMCH&RC) Kumbhari Solapur. The arterial blood samples were analyzed on the ABOTT arterial blood gas analyzer (ABG) and venous samples were analyzed on PROLYTE electrolyte autoanalyzer (AA). Both instruments were placed in our biochemistry laboratory. Results: A total of 200 samples were analyzed. The mean ABG sodium value was 132.0 mmol/L (SD 9.82) and the mean AA sodium (Na ) was 135.7 mmol/L (SD 9.99). The mean AA sodium value was more than mean ABG sodium but statistically significant difference was not found (p=0.18). The mean ABG potassium (K ) value was 3.4 mmol/L (SD 0.68) and the mean AA potassium (K ) was 3.8 mmol/L (SD 0.79). The mean AA potassium value was more than mean ABG potassium and found statistically significant difference (p=0.02). Conclusion: We found that there was no significant difference in the sodium values measured by the ABG analyzer and the auto-analyzer. However, there was a significant difference in the potassium values measured by these instruments.