Arterial Blood Gas Analysis: Use of Point-of-Care-testing in the Field

The groundbreaking invention of carbon dioxide and oxygen electrodes in the 1950s resulted in the construction of the blood-gas analyzer by Severinghaus and Bradley in 1959.1 Since that time, blood-gas analysis has been established as a powerful diagnostic tool in critical care. When lightweight, portable analyzers were first introduced in 1995, we started testing them in our local physician-staffed emergency medical system in Graz, Austria.2 We have been using blood-gas analysis as a routine diagnostic procedure in prehospital emergency medicine and have gained experience with three different types of analyzers.3,4 The devices now available offer a wide range of functions, but the basic parameters measured are Po2, Pco2, and pH, with bicarbonate concentration and base excess recalculated. These parameters enable the emergency physician to detect a broad range of life-threatening respiratory disturbances and acid-base imbalances. Their early, exact diagnosis in the field, as well as in the emergency department, allows efficient, properly directed therapy.