Abstract

The effect of temperature, time of storage for arterial blood gas analysis was studied. The results were: 1) Those samples kept at 25℃ for 2 hours showed decreased pH and increased PCO2(P<0.05), but no considerable clinical meanings are recognized. Those samples kept at 4℃ or 0℃ showed no significant changes in pH and PCO2. 2) A significant change, decreasing the PO2 values, during the period, storage, was found and the decreasing rate of PO2 was greater in group, initial value high, than it low one, and such changes could lead to a clinically considerable error, stored at 25℃, beyond 15 minutes. 3) The changes of pH, PCO2 and PO2 during the first one hour of the experimental period were higher than that of the latter one hour. The effect of time delay on blood gas analysis can causes significant errors, especially in PO2 values. The results of these experiments suggest that unless the arterial blood samples are analyzed immediately after experiments suggest that unless the arterial blood samples are analyzed immediately after shedding, prompt icing of samples are optimal to minimize possible error in laboratory results.