Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zavorsky, Gerald S
• van Wijk, Xander M R

Titel

The stability of blood gases and CO-oximetry under slushed ice and room temperature conditions

Ist Teil von

• Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine, 2023-09, Vol.61 (10), p.1750

Ort / Verlag

Germany

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Human blood gas stability data is limited to small sample sizes and questionable statistical techniques. We sought to determine the stability of blood gases under room temperature and slushed iced conditions in patients using survival analyses. Whole blood samples from ∼200 patients were stored in plastic syringes and kept at room temperature (22-24 °C) or in slushed ice (0.1-0.2 °C) before analysis. Arterial and venous O (15-150 mmHg), CO (16-72 mmHg), pH (6.73-7.52), and the CO-oximetry panel [total hemoglobin (5.4-19.3 g/dL), percentages of oxyhemoglobin (O Hb%, 20-99%), carboxyhemoglobin (COHb, 0.1-5.4%) and methemoglobin (MetHb, 0.2-4.6%)], were measured over 5-time points. The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia's (RCPA's) criteria determined analyte instability. Survival analyses identified storage times at which 5% of the samples for various analytes became unstable. COHb and MetHb were stable up to 3 h in slushed ice and at room temperature; CO , pH was stable at room temperature for about 60 min and 3 h in slushed ice. Slushed ice shortened the storage time before O became unstable (from 40 to 20 min), and the instability increased when baseline O was ≥60 mmHg. The storage time for O , CO , pH, and CO-oximetry, when measured together, were limited by the O . When assessing O in plastic syringes, samples kept in slushed ice harm their stability. For simplicity's sake, the data support storage times for blood gas and CO-oximetry panels of up to 40 min at room temperature if following RCPA guidelines.