This is the third in a series of four essays on www.acutecaretesting.org.  The first essay, "Quality control in theory and practice – a gap analysis", raised the question: Has “the system” given front-line laboratory workers the knowledge and tools they need to make quality control decisions wisely? Or is there a...

Reprinted with permission from British Journal of Nursing, 2004, Vol 13, No 9.  Arterial puncture is the most common method used to obtain a sample for the measurement of arterial blood gases (ABGs) and is essential to guide the prescription of long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) in patients with chronic hypoxic lung...

In Geneva in 1821, a French nobleman Jacques Alexandre Le Jumeau, Vicomte de Kergaradec, became the pioneer of modern fetal monitoring. He described the sound of the fetal heartbeat, as he used the newly invented stethoscope (by Laennec, France 1819) and applied it to the abdominal wall of a pregnant woman [1]. The...

As point-of-care testing (POCT) continues to expand in the hospital environment, the desire of physicians to participate in the performance of testing may increase. This article discusses the required competencies for a physician who wishes to be involved in laboratory testing and some practical considerations for...

The National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry has developed a Laboratory Medicine Practice Guideline for point-of-care testing (POCT). This POCT guideline systematically reviews the scientific literature linking POCT to patient outcome and makes recommendations for the optimal use of POCT in patient care.  This...

The National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) Laboratory Working Group reviewed problems related to serum creatinine measurement for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and prepared recommendations to standardize and improve creatinine measurement. The NKDEP recommends using the estimating equation...

This is the second of two articles about the risks and benefits of red-cell transfusion directed at healthcare professionals without any particular transfusion expertise. The focus of the first article was the risks and the extensive measures taken to minimize those risks. For this second article, attention turns to...

Clinical initiatives to maintain blood glucose (BG) within a more normal range have emerged over the last decade as a growing trend in clinical management of patients in acute care settings. This trend has grown due to the increased focus of research in glycemic control (GC) and results indicating that GC is...

This is the second in a series of articles. The first essay, “Quality control in theory and practice – a gap analysis”, published here in January 2006 raised the question: Has “the system” given front-line laboratory workers the knowledge and tools they need to make quality control decisions wisely – or is there a...

Although often of life-saving benefit, transfusion of donated red cells is associated with considerable potential risk for the recipient patient. This article, directed at healthcare professionals without any particular transfusion expertise, outlines these risks and the measures taken to minimize them. Particular...