The intraoperative monitoring of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood (pCO₂) is used to assess the adequacy of ventilation and guide clinical interventions.  Although end-tidal CO₂ monitoring remains the most frequently used non-invasive technology in the intraoperative setting to provide a...

Babies are not small adults! The potential for abnormal adaptation to life outside of the womb, changes in physiology, and a myriad of possible life-threatening clinical conditions requires an understanding of the laboratory tests needed to support these infants.  To effectively handle the unique needs of these...

Neonates are subject to more preanalytical influences than any other population group. Many of these are related to the maturity of the infant and its adaptation to extra-uterine life. The necessary need for capillary blood collection and processing of small quantities of blood introduce additional preanalytical...

What quality is being controlled in laboratories today?  The definition of a quality requirement for each laboratory test is the starting point of quantitative quality management. Different types of requirements may be used as long as there are appropriate quality-planning models for translating those requirements...

How do small labs cope with the demands of modern quality assurance? In this interview, Ruth Lock, head of the laboratory of the Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Dept. of the Copenhagen County Hospital in Glostrup, Denmark, tells how her lab keeps up with demands with the help of training and quality control.

Two months of acclimatization to high altitude leads to an adaptation of the aerobic capacity of the myocardium, characterized by an increased ability to extract O₂ from the coronary vascular bed. An increased mitochondrial volume and activity of oxidative enzymes or improved diffusion conditions could be involved.

Providing continuous technical support and reliable test data collection for point-of-care blood gas testing is a difficult task for many laboratories.  Here we describe how the implementation of an integrated instrument control and data management system for point-of-care blood gas testing has streamlined these...

Examination of peripheral pulses and peripheral blood pressures are commonly used methods for investigation of macrocirculation. However, falsely elevated peripheral blood pressures may complicate the accurate prediction of ulcer healing in diabetic patients.  Because tcpO₂ also measures the nutritive skin capillary...

The pro-con debate on the advisability of introducing POCT deals with the likely clinical benefits but – to an even higher degree – with the economic aspects. We discuss various models for determining the costs, and some caveats.

Point-of-care testing (POCT) is a delivery option for performing laboratory testing closer to the patient. Due to increasing healthcare pressures for faster turnaround of laboratory results and the development of a broader menu of testing devices, POCT is growing in popularity. Devices today are more portable,...