Effects of body temperature on blood gases

Abstract

Background: Changes in body temperature have important impact on measurements of blood gases. In blood gas analyzers the samples are always kept constant at a temperature of exactly 3°C during the measurements, and therefore results are not correct if body temperature differs from 37°C. Objective: Lack of knowledge of the effects of body temperature on results of blood gas monitoring may lead to wrong and potentially harmful interpretations and decisions in the clinical setting. The following article elucidates alterations in monitoring of blood gases and oxyhemoglobin saturation (SO2) that occur during changes in body temperature.