How do errors occur in the laboratory and what can we do to prevent errors? Any test can and will fail if incorrectly performed or operated under the wrong conditions. The role of the laboratory director is to determine those conditions and to understand test limitations in order to prevent laboratory errors....

Recently developed high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (cTn) assays can measure approximately 10 times lower concentrations with high precision (coefficient of variation, <10 % at the 99th percentile of the upper reference limit) than conventional assays, and can measure cTn concentrations in at least 50 % of a reference ...

Few studies have addressed the predictive value of C-reactive protein at different cutoff values in appendicitis. We have determined the cutoff values for C-reactive protein levels at different periods during clinical evolution of appendicitis and established their use to support the diagnosis of appendicitis. The...

Arterial blood gases (ABG), a clinical test that involves measurement of the pH of arterial blood and the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolved in arterial blood, is routinely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of predominantly critically/acutely ill patients being cared for in hospital emergency rooms and...

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....

BACKGROUND: Hospitals in countries with public health systems have recently adopted organizational changes to improve efficiency and resource allocation, and reducing inappropriate hospitalizations has been established as an important goal, as well as avoiding or buffering overcrowding in Emergency Departments. AIMS: ...

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...

Preanalytical errors are quite frequent in the area of point-of-care testing (POCT). There are many reasons for that. First of all, POCT testing is usually performed by clinical staff (i.e. nurses and physicians), who are neither so skilled nor educated for laboratory work as laboratory professionals. Moreover,...

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...

Arterial blood gases (ABG), a clinical test that involves measurement of the pH of arterial blood and the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolved in arterial blood, is routinely used in the diagnosis and monitoring of predominantly critically/acutely ill patients being cared for in hospital emergency rooms and...