Comparison of blood gas and electrolyte test results from the Gem-Premier and the ABL-70 versus a conventional laboratory analyzer

Abstract

Blood gas analyzers serve a critical role in providing information that reflects patient homeostasis. This study was undertaken to evaluate the accuracy, reliability, consistency, and bias of the Radiometer ABL-70 point of care blood gas analyzer. Thirty samples were gathered for analysis of pH, pCO2, pO2, sodium, potassium, sodium bicarbonate, and base excess. Twenty-nine samples were gathered for hematocrit, 31 for ionized calcium, and 33 for venous pO2 and saturations. The data were compared with the Gem-Premier point of care analyzer and the hospital blood gas machine and electrolyte analyzer. There was statistical significance between the pH, pCO2, sodium, potassium, calcium, hematocrit, and venous pO2 and saturations when comparing the ABL-70 with the Gem-Premier. When comparing the ABL-70 with the Corning 278/270 blood gas machine/ Co-Ox, the AVL-9180, and the Dimension XL, there was statistical significance seen between the pH, pCO2, pO2, sodium, calcium, hematocrit, and base excess. Although this statistical significance was observed between the ABL-70 and the other analyzers, the significance was not of clinical importance. The ABL-70 demonstrated acceptable accuracy, reliability, consistency, and bias.