Abstract
Objectives
The objective of our study is to evaluate the effect of storage temperature and time to analysis on arterial blood gas parameters in order to extend the CLSI recommendations.
Methods
Stability of 12 parameters (pH, pCO₂, pO₂, Na+, K+, Ca2+, glucose, lactate, hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin) measured by GEM PREMIER™ 5000 blood gas analyzer was studied at room temperature and at +4 °C (52 patients). The storage times were 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 min. Stability was evaluated on the difference from baseline, the difference from the analyte-specific measurement uncertainty applied to the baseline value, and the impact of the variation on the clinical interpretation.
Results
At room temperature, all parameters except the lactate remained stable for at least 60 min. A statistically significant difference was observed for pH at T45 and T60 and for pCO2 at T60 without modification of clinical interpretation. For lactate, clinical interpretation was modified from T45 and values were outside the range of acceptability defined by the measurement uncertainty. All parameters except pO2 remained stable for at least 120 min at +4 °C.
Conclusions
A one-hour transport at room temperature is compatible with the performance of all the analyses studied except lactate. If the delay exceeds 30 min, the sample should be placed at +4 °C for lactate measurement. If the samples are stored in ice, it is important to note that the pO2 cannot be interpreted.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. AP, MB and DB analyzed and interpreted the data. AP wrote the initial version of the manuscript. DB and VS designed the study and assisted with interpretation of the data and writing of the manuscript. BR and MJ supervised the trial and data collection. AP, BA, SK and CP carried out assays. BP provided statistical advice for the study design and analyzed the data. All the authors contributed to revision of the manuscript before submission.
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Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
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Informed consent: Patients were informed of their right to express their disagreement regarding the use of their clinical information for research purposes.
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Ethical approval: This research complied with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 2013), and has received approval by local Ethics Committee (IRB00013412, “CHU de Clermont-Ferrand IRB #1”, IRB number 2022-CF055) with compliance to the French policy of individual data protection.
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2023-0162).
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