Abstract
Objectives
The aim of this study was to evaluate the analytical performance of the new epoc® point-of-care blood analysis system in cardiopulmonary bypass patients.
Design and methods
The precision study was conducted on 3 epoc® blood analysis systems using 5 levels of quality control materials twice per day for 5 days. The blood specimen was collected in blood gas syringes from 40 cardiac perfusion patients for the comparison study on epoc® (all 3 meters), Instrumentation Laboratory GEM4000, Abbott iSTAT, Nova CCX, and Roche Accu-Chek Inform II and Performa glucose meters.
Results
The epoc® blood analysis systems demonstrated clinically acceptable precision for all analytes (from 0.07%, 0.07%, and 0.13% for pH 7.6, 7.4, and 7.0 levels; to 3.87%, 3.74%, and 7.56% for pO2 197, 103, and 56 mm Hg levels). Comparison studies yielded a correlation coefficient R from 0.9201 (sodium) to 0.9969 (pO2) with the GEM4000; from 0.9071 (sodium) to 0.9965 (potassium) with the iSTAT; from 0.8793 (sodium) to 0.9957 (pO2) with the CCX, and 0.9850 and 0.9904 with Roche Inform II and Performa meters respectively. Average biases for all analytes were within the total allowable error limits.
Conclusion
The epoc® blood analysis system is acceptable for point-of-care testing in the cardiovascular surgery setting.