Oxygen is one of the most widely used drugs in medicine, and especially so in the newborn period. In many cases, oxygen supplementation is needed and is life-giving, but we are also aware of its toxic effects. In spite of this, we still do not know exactly what is the correct way to administer this drug. It is a...

Is it a good idea to rely on vendors to help develop training materials for point-of-care testing staff? According to the lab group responsible for point-of-care (POC) testing at the Malmö University Hospital in Sweden, vendor cooperation can help you achieve a better result, faster. However, the better prepared you ...

What does it take to ensure an effective competency program? Acutecaretesting.org asked three point-of-care coordinators (POCC) with solid programs what makes their competencies work. Their input resulted in a list of 12 key recommendations.

The significance of good practice during the pretesting phase of clinical laboratory investigation cannot be overemphasized. The production of high-quality, accurate results, which are clinically useful, depends as much on practice before the patient’s sample reaches the laboratory as it does on the analytical phase...

Neonatology, perhaps more than any other field in medicine, has undergone dramatic improvements in care over the last several decades. One of the main areas of advancement is the ability to mechanically ventilate premature infants with a variety of neonatal lung conditions. As survival of premature infants has...

Test results are commonly interpreted against population-based reference (normal) intervals, which should be provided on every laboratory report, irrespective of whether the test has been done as point-of-care testing or in a clinical laboratory. Reference intervals are difficult to generate properly if international ...

Almost as soon as healthcare providers began ventilating neonates with respiratory distress syndrome, the problem of chronic lung disease began. How to manage these children in a way to promote lung growth and disease-free survival has been the question for those involved in the care of these infants since that time....

To assess anemia and reduced oxygen-carrying capacity, a measurement of hematocrit and/or hemoglobin is performed. Whether hemoglobin or hematocrit is preferred depends on different needs and is often determined by tradition.  Both hematocrit and hemoglobin are important hematology parameters for diagnosing...

Biochemical and hematological analyses are done in laboratories, clinics, general practices and in point-of-care settings such as ITU.  Generally, numerical test results are generated.   Test results vary in individuals over time due to preanalytical variation, analytical imprecision and biological variation. The...

Disturbance of the mechanisms which maintain normal blood pH is a defining feature of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), an acute and life-threatening complication of the chronic metabolic disease, diabetes.  For this reason diagnosis and monitoring of DKA invariably include measurement of arterial blood gases. This...