Clinical and statistical evaluation of 1st Automatic: a pilot study

Arterial blood gas analyses provide information about the patient's oxygenation, ventilation, and perfusion. Studies have shown that most errors occur during the pre-analytical phase (the processes prior to the actual analysis of the sample). 1st Automatic is an extra module to the existing blood gas analyzer and a partial automation of the pre-analytical phase which is designed to reduce these errors. The objective was to investigate whether 1st Automatic is compatible to the conventional method. Quantitative measurements of pH, pCO2, pO2, Na+, K+, Ca2+, cGlu, cLac and tHb were performed on 21 paired whole blood specimens collected into the standard blood gas syringes and safePICO syringes, both designed for the ABL800 FLEX. During the collection the pre-analytical errors were minimised. No clinically significant differences were observed in the nine blood gas parameters. The differences were statistically insignificant, with the exception of cNa+, cCa2+ and tHb. There was a good consistency between the results using the new automated procedure and the conventional method. It was not possible to show any clinically significant difference between the two procedures.