INTRODUCTION Ionized calcium (iCa) concentration is often used in critical care and measured using blood gas analyzers at the point of care. Controlling and adjusting regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) for continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) involves measuring the iCa concentration in two samples: systemic with physiological iCa concentrations and post filter samples with very low i...

BACKGROUND The Accu-Chek Inform glucose monitor is a point-of-care system for testing blood glucose. New test strips, calibrated to deliver glucose plasma-like values, were launched on the market in May 2005. The aim of our study was to perform analytical validation of these new strips. METHODS We compared the new plasma strips with whole blood strips; results for the plasma strips with plasm...

PURPOSE Gas embolism during hysteroscopy is rare but sometimes fatal. A fatal case of gas embolism during diagnostic hysteroscopy using carbon dioxide (CO2) is presented. CLINICAL FEATURES A 68 yr old woman was admitted for treatment of myoma and cancer of the uterus. Hysteroscopy using CO2 was performed without monitoring or anesthesia on the ward. At the end of the examination, just after t...

We tested the response characteristics of a dual transcutaneous (tc) PO2/PCO2 monitoring system in healthy subjects who breathed various gas mixtures, and we compared steady-state tc readings to simultaneous arterial blood gas analysis in 20 stable respiratory outpatients. The electrodes were simple to apply, required very little skin preparation, and had trivial signal drift. In healthy subjec...

This study was supported by the Asthma Foundation of Western Australia and the TVW Telethon Foundation. Lee DA, W(inslow NR, Speight ANP, Hev EN. IPrevalence and spectrum of asthma in childhood. BrMed.7 1983;286:1258-60. 2 McFadden ER, Lvons HA. Arterial-blood gas tension in asthma. N' Et-ngI7 Mtled 1968;278: 1027-32. 3 Burki NK, Albert RK. Noninvasive monitoring of arterial blood gases: a repo...

A 10 year old, 25 kg girl, who was formerly a conjoined twin at the heart, diaphragm, liver, duodenum, bile ducts, and intestine, was admitted for a repeat liver, small bowel, pancreas, and kidney multivisceral transplant after having intestinal and liver failure. Intraoperatively, the patient had excessive bleeding, coagulopathy, and acidosis. Pulse co-oximetry was used for continuous monitori...

  A novel compact fiber-coupled NIR system based on a DFB diode laser source is employed as a portable and sensitive gas sensor for trace detection of combustion pollutant molecules. We demonstrate the performance of such an NIR gas sensor by tracing the absorption lines of CO and CH4 using 2f-WMS technique at moderate temperature of T ~ 600°C in the recuperator channel of an industrial furnace...

BACKGROUND The gold standard to assess hyperbilirubinemia in neonates remains the serum bilirubin measurement. Unfortunately, this is invasive, painful, and costly. Bilimed, a new transcutaneous bilirubinometer, suggests more accuracy compared to the existing non-invasive bilirubinometers because of its new technology. It furthermore takes into account different skin colours. No contact with th...