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Reference intervals for venous blood gas measurement in adults

  • Kirsty L. Ress EMAIL logo , Gus Koerbin , Ling Li , Douglas Chesher , Phillip Bwititi and Andrea R. Horvath
Published/Copyright: December 3, 2020
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 59 Issue 5

Abstract

Objectives

Venous blood gas (VBG) analysis is becoming a popular alternative to arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis due to reduced risk of complications at phlebotomy and ease of draw. In lack of published data, this study aimed to establish reference intervals (RI) for correct interpretation of VBG results.

Methods

One hundred and 51 adult volunteers (101 females, 50 males, 18–70 years) were enrolled after completion of a health questionnaire. Venous blood was drawn into safePICO syringes and analysed on ABL827 blood gas analyser (Radiometer Pacific Pty. Ltd.). A non-parametric approach was used to directly establish the VBG RI which was compared to a calculated VBG RI based on a meta-analysis of differences between ABG and VBG

Results

After exclusions, 134 results were used to derive VBG RI: pH 7.30–7.43, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) 38–58 mmHg, partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) 19–65 mmHg, bicarbonate (HCO3−) 22–30 mmol/L, sodium 135–143 mmol/L, potassium 3.6–4.5 mmol/L, chloride 101–110 mmol/L, ionised calcium 1.14–1.29 mmol/L, lactate 0.4–2.2 mmol/L, base excess (BE) −1.9–4.5 mmol/L, saturated oxygen (sO2) 23–93%, carboxyhaemoglobin 0.4–1.4% and methaemoglobin 0.3–0.9%. The meta-analysis revealed differences between ABG and VBG for pH, HCO3−, pCO2 and pO2 of 0.032, −1.0 mmol/L, −4.2 and 39.9 mmHg, respectively. Using this data along with established ABG RI, calculated VBG RI of pH 7.32–7.42, HCO3− 23 – 27 mmol/L, pCO2 36–49 mmHg (female), pCO2 39–52 mmHg (male) and pO2 43–68 mmHg were formulated and compared to the VBG RI of this study.

Conclusions

An adult reference interval has been established to assist interpretation of VBG results.

Keywords: blood gas analysis; reference intervals; venous blood
Corresponding author: Kirsty L. Ress, Department of Chemical Pathology, NSW Health Pathology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia; and School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Sydney, Australia, Phone +61 02 9382 9082, Fax +61 02 9382 9099, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The authors thank NSW Health Pathology for providing resources to conduct this study. Anthony Diamond and Dorra Arvanitis are acknowledged for their support and advice during this study, Annie Le for her contribution to the collection of samples and NSW Health employees for volunteering to participate in this study.

  1. Research funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  5. Ethical approval: This study was compliant with all relevant national regulations, institutional policies and is in accordance with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration. The study has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Charles Sturt University (ethics approval number H16177).

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Received: 2020-08-11
Accepted: 2020-11-18
Published Online: 2020-12-03
Published in Print: 2021-04-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-1224
Keywords for this article
blood gas analysis; reference intervals; venous blood

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Home pregnancy tests: quality first
  4. Review
  5. Non-invasive determination of uric acid in human saliva in the diagnosis of serious disorders
  6. Opinion Papers
  7. Basophil counting in hematology analyzers: time to discontinue?
  8. The role of laboratory hematology between technology and professionalism: the paradigm of basophil counting
  9. Recommendations for validation testing of home pregnancy tests (HPTs) in Europe
  10. General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
  11. The use of preanalytical quality indicators: a Turkish preliminary survey study
  12. The Italian External Quality Assessment (EQA) program on urinary sediment by microscopy examination: a 20 years journey
  13. Non-HDL-C/TG ratio indicates significant underestimation of calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) better than TG level: a study on the reliability of mathematical formulas used for LDL-C estimation
  14. Evaluation of the protein gap for detection of abnormal serum gammaglobulin level: an imperfect predictor
  15. Impact of routine S100B protein assay on CT scan use in children with mild traumatic brain injury
  16. Using machine learning to develop an autoverification system in a clinical biochemistry laboratory
  17. Effect of collection matrix, platelet depletion, and storage conditions on plasma extracellular vesicles and extracellular vesicle-associated miRNAs measurements
  18. Pneumatic tube transportation of urine samples
  19. Evaluation of the first immunosuppressive drug assay available on a fully automated LC-MS/MS-based clinical analyzer suggests a new era in laboratory medicine
  20. A validated LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of the novel combination antibiotic, ceftolozane–tazobactam, in plasma (total and unbound), CSF, urine and renal replacement therapy effluent: application to pilot pharmacokinetic studies
  21. Immunosuppressant quantification in intravenous microdialysate – towards novel quasi-continuous therapeutic drug monitoring in transplanted patients
  22. Reference Values and Biological Variations
  23. Reference intervals for venous blood gas measurement in adults
  24. Cardiovascular Diseases
  25. Detection and functional characterization of a novel MEF2A variation responsible for familial dilated cardiomyopathy
  26. Diabetes
  27. Evaluation of the ARKRAY HA-8190V instrument for HbA1c
  28. Infectious Diseases
  29. An original multiplex method to assess five different SARS-CoV-2 antibodies
  30. Evaluation of dried blood spots as alternative sampling material for serological detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using established ELISAs
  31. Variability of cycle threshold values in an external quality assessment scheme for detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus genome by RT-PCR
  32. The vasoactive peptide MR-pro-adrenomedullin in COVID-19 patients: an observational study
  33. Corrigenda
  34. Corrigendum to: Understanding and managing interferences in clinical laboratory assays: the role of laboratory professionals
  35. Corrigendum to: Age appropriate reference intervals for eight kidney function and injury markers in infants, children and adolescents
  36. Letters to the Editor
  37. A panhaemocytometric approach to COVID-19: a retrospective study on the importance of monocyte and neutrophil population data on Sysmex XN-series analysers
  38. Letter in reply to the letter to the editor of Harte JV and Mykytiv V with the title “A panhaemocytometric approach to COVID-19: a retrospective study on the importance of monocyte and neutrophil population data”
  39. SARS-CoV-2 serologic tests: do not forget the good laboratory practice
  40. Long-term kinetics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a cohort of 197 hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients
  41. Self-sampling at home using volumetric absorptive microsampling: coupling analytical evaluation to volunteers’ perception in the context of a large scale study
  42. Vortex mixing to alleviate pseudothrombocytopenia in a blood specimen with platelet satellitism and platelet clumps
  43. Comparative evaluation of the fully automated HemosIL® AcuStar ADAMTS13 activity assay vs. ELISA: possible interference by autoantibodies different from anti ADAMTS-13
  44. Significant interference on specific point-of-care glucose measurements due to high dose of intravenous vitamin C therapy in critically ill patients
  45. As time goes by, on that you can rely … preservation of urine samples for morphological analysis of erythrocytes and casts
  46. Stability of control materials for α-thalassemia immunochromatographic strip test
  47. Reformulated Architect® cyclosporine CMIA assay: improved imprecision, worse comparability between methods
  48. Urine-to-plasma contamination mimicking acute kidney injury: small drops with major consequences
  49. Automated Mindray CL-1200i chemiluminescent assays of renin and aldosterone for the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism
  50. Use of common reference intervals does not necessarily allow inter-method numerical result trending
  51. Reply to Dr Hawkins regarding comparability of results for monitoring
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