Calcium is an essential mineral required for numerous biological functions. In circulation, calcium is found in three different fractions, anion-bound, protein-bound and free or ”ionized”. The amount of calcium in each of these fractions is dependent on the concentration of hydrogen ions, anions and plasma proteins....

Chris Price and Andrew St John have followed their book Point-of-Care Testing for Managers and Policymakers with another look at the subject from strategic vision to change management and implementation in Point-of-Care Testing: Making Innovation Work for Patient-Centered Care. In their latest book the authors give...

The term acidosis was first mentioned in the medical literature in 1898 in connection with the description of diabetic ketoacidosis. Alkalosis was first used in human medicine in 1922 by the English physiologist J. S. Haldane; it had been used in veterinary medicine somewhat earlier. In 1870, the Norwegians C. M....

When collecting blood for blood gas analysis, it is important to remove air bubbles from syringes to avoid erroneous results, especially for pO₂, with a number of factors affecting the potential magnitude of the interference to pO₂ by air bubbles.  In this study, we calculate the expected theoretical changes in pO₂...

Patients with sepsis, severe sepsis and/or septic shock are at increased risk of death and organ dysfunction.  While morbidity and mortality of patients with severe traumatic injury, acute myocardial infarction or stroke have been significantly reduced during recent years by the implementation of well-coordinated...

Sepsis and septic shock lead to local and systemic activation of different response systems, including coagulation and fibrinolysis.  Despite numerous attempts the high mortality rate of these patients has remained stable over the last 20 years. In this overview the pathophysiological insights and possible...

Recent studies of D-dimer as a “rule-out” test for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) frequently have used duplex ultrasound rather than venography as the gold standard. Because duplex ultrasound has limited ability to image the calf veins, there is potential for ultrasound studies to classify patients with calf DVT as...

Timely and accurate diagnosis of sepsis is of great importance for the choice of treatment, level of monitoring and prognosis. For this biomarkers could be a significant aid, and thus the search for and application of sepsis biomarkers are of great importance.  Current evidence suggests that C-reactive protein and...

Chest pain is a frequent cause of hospitalization and comprises a significant proportion of the acute medical workload in the western world. This issue is compounded for those living in regional or remote communities due to limited access to pathology services and tertiary-referral institutions. Evidence suggests...

Modern analytical devices for testing biological fluids, such as blood, have now developed a sophistication that ensures the quality of the analytical result is capable of matching that achieved in the central laboratory.    Complementary developments are focused on reducing operator-related and connectivity-related...