A New Method for Measuring the Oxygen Content in Microliter Samples of Gases and Liquids: The Oxygen Cuvette

Gas analytical processes for the determination of oxygen content or concentration are based partly on physical principles (e.g. mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, paramagnetic methods) and partly on chemical methods (e.g. gasometric, titrimetric, electrochemical or photometric methods).

The accuracy of calculated base excess in blood.

Most equations used for calculation of the base excess (BE, mmol/l) in human blood are based on the fundamental equation derived by Siggaard-Andersen and called the Van Slyke equation: BE = Z x [[cHCO3-(P) - C7.4 HCO3-(P)] + beta x (pH -7.4)]. In simple approximation, where Z is a constant which depends only on total hemoglobin concentration (cHb, g/dl) in blood, three equations were tested: the ones proposed by Siggaard-Andersen (SA), the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) or Zander (ZA). They differ only slightly in the solubility factor for carbon dioxide (alphaCO2, mmol/l x mmHg) and in the apparent pK(pK'), but more significantly in the plasma bicarbonate conc…

A response to ?Severe lactic acidosis following alcohol related generalised seizures?

The determination of haemoglobin as cyanhaemiglobin or as alkaline haematin D-575. Comparison of method-related errors.

In order to compare the accuracy of haemoglobin (Hb) determination methods, the commonly used cyanhaemiglobin (HiCN) method and the recently developed alkaline haematin D-575 (AHD) method (R. Zander, W. Lang & H. U. Wolf (1984) Clin. Chim. Acta 136, 83-93; H. U. Wolf, W. Lang & R. Zander (1984) Clin. Chim. Acta 136, 95-104) were tested with respect to method-related errors such as plasma, cell, and Hb errors. Both methods yield a series of more or less significant errors which generally lead to an overestimation of the Hb concentration in the order of 1%. However, in all three cases of plasma errors, i.e. normal plasma error, plasma error in lipaemic blood, and plasma error in bilirubinaemi…

Base Excess and Strong Ion Difference: Clinical Limitations Related to Inaccuracy

Physiological HEPES Buffer Proposed as a Calibrator for pH Measurement in Human Blood

Abstract N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-piperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid, known as HEPES buffer, with p K in the physiological range was studied for use as an alternative to conventional phosphate buffer for the calibration of pH in modern clinical analyzers. In different series of aqueous equimolar HEPES buffer, pH was measured at 37 °C with a capillary glass electrode standardized previously using phosphate, and variations due to changes in total HEPES buffer concentration (0.025 to 0.320 mol/l), and NaCl (0 to 0.250 mol/l) were monitored. For 0.05 equimolar HEPES buffer without NaCl, the pH of 7.362 ± 0.003 (n = 15) obtained coincided well with the reference pH (7.364) from the National Institute…

Alkaline haematin D-575, a new tool for the determination of haemoglobin as an alternative to the cyanhaemiglobin method. I. description of the method

A new method for the rapid and accurate measurement of haemoglobin has been developed as an alternative to the conventional cyanhaemiglobin method. This method is based on the conversion of all haeme, haemoglobin, and haemiglobin species into a stable end product by an alkaline solution of a non-ionic detergent ('AHD reagent'). The reaction product, designated as alkaline haematin D-575, is extremely stable and shows a characteristic absorption peak at 575 nm. As compared to the cyanhaemiglobin method, the determination of haemoglobin by alkaline haematin D-575 offers several advantages such as (1) extreme stability of the AHD reagent and the conversion product, (2) decreased conversion tim…

Prediction of dilutional acidosis based on the revised classical dilution concept for bicarbonate

Due to the controversy surrounding the term dilutional acidosis, the classical dilution concept for bicarbonate has been rigorously revised for the prediction of pH, actual bicarbonate concentration, and base excess. In the algorithms derived for buffer solutions, blood, and whole body (1-, 2-, and 3-fluid compartment), only bicarbonate is considered. On dilution at constant Pco2, the final concentration of bicarbonate is the sum in terms of pH, due to the following processes: dilution, formation from chemical reaction with the nonbicarbonate buffers phosphate, hemoglobin, and plasma proteins, and transfer from erythrocytes and interstitial fluid to plasma. At constant Pco2, the level of c…

Photometric Determination of the O2 Status of Human Blood Using the Oxystat System: cO2 (mL/dL), sO2 (%), cHb (g/dL)

The O2 status of arterial human blood (Zander, 1990) can be completely described by a set of four parameters: cO2 (mL/dL), sO2 (%), cHb (g/dL) and pO2 (mm Hg).

Calculation of the pH and the titratable acidity in clinically used infusion solutions.

Clinically used infusion solutions are complex aqueous mixtures composed of a variety of different salts, acids, and non-electrolytes, and are characterized by composition, initial pH, and titratable acidity (TA). By rigorous treatment as a multi-composed acid-base system, pH and TA were calculated from proton dissociation equilibria, mass balance equations and electroneutrality condition. Nine were arbitrarily chosen as model solutions in which pH and TA were experimentally determined. From composition, and based on a set of apparent acidity constants (pK values) at 37 degrees C and total ionic strength 0.155 mol/l, pH was calculated by iteration. In the model solutions, measured pH was in…

Solubility of NH3 and apparent pK of NH4+ in human plasma, isotonic salt solutions and water at 37 degrees C.

The solubility of ammonia, alphaNH3 (mM/mmHg), was determined at 37 degrees C and low ammonia partial pressure (0.02-1 mmHg) in pure water (n =24) as 46.70+/-0.40; aqueous isotonic salt solutions (n = 7) as 46.8+/-0.81; and human plasma (n = 5) as 42.0+/-0.66. The last figure increases to 45.3+/-0.63 if expressed in molal units (mmol/kg plasma water x mmHg) instead of molarity with respect to the water content of the plasma (mean from four healthy and fasting donors: 0.908+0.005 kg H2O/kg plasma; mean density at 37 degrees C: 1.020+/-0.002 kg/l). In pure water, the solubility value is the mean of three different methods: (a) extrapolation of the salting-out effect of ammonia in aqueous NaOH…