BACKGROUND: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening endocrine emergency, traditionally requiring arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis for diagnosis and monitoring. The aim of our study was to assess the comparability of arterial and venous blood samples for pH and bicarbonate measurements in patients with DKA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Prospective, observational study of patients with suspe...

BACKGROUND The study objective was to investigate the efficacy of 6 months of nocturnal nasal positive pressure ventilation (NNPPV) on arterial blood gas, exercise capacity, respiratory muscle function, and the frequency of hospital admission in hypercapnic patients with severe obstructive lung diseases. METHODS This was a prospective, randomized, controlled study. Twenty-seven patients with ...

The morbidly obese are known to have impaired respiratory function. A prospective study of the changes in lung volumes, carbon monoxide transfer, and arterial blood gas tensions was undertaken in 29 morbidly obese patients before and after surgery to induce weight loss. Before surgery the predominant abnormality in respiratory function was a reduction in lung volumes. These increased towards no...

Considerable interest has been shown in recent years in the relative distributions of alveolar blood and gas flows under various conditions. During thoracic surgical procedures in the lateral position, with one hemithorax open and with controlled ventilation of the lungs, a severe degree of maldistribution of blood and gas may be expected. The upper lung may be freely expanded, retracted by the...

Students often have difficulty understanding the relationship of O(2) consumption, CO(2) production, cardiac output, and distribution of ventilation-perfusion ratios in the lung to the final arterial blood gas composition. To overcome this difficulty, I have developed an interactive computer simulation of pulmonary gas exchange that is web based and allows the student to vary multiple factors s...

Monitoring the carbon dioxide exhaust of an oxygenator is an inexpensive method to accurately predict and control the arterial carbon dioxide tension during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the exhaust ventilating gas (p exCO 2) was continuously monitored from the capnograph port of the Sorin Monolyth oxygenator during CPB. At the time of routine arteria...

We have measured the partial pressure of isoflurane simultaneously in inspired gas (PIiso), end-expired gas (PE'iso), mixed-expired gas (PEiso), arterial (Paiso) and mixed venous blood (Pviso) in six patients (aged 57-79 yr) anaesthetized with nitrous oxide, oxygen and isoflurane before surgery and after PE'iso had been stable for at least 15 min. We related these changes to the various indices...

One hundred and fifty eight paired arterial and capillary blood samples were obtained from 41 sick preterm infants in their first week of life and the pH, and PCO2, and PO2 concentrations were measured. Half of the capillary samples were obtained from unwarmed heels and half from heels warmed to 40 degrees C. A potentially significant discrepancy (arbitrarily defined as 0.05 units for pH. 1 kPa...