Performance Evaluation of the Portable Blood Gas Analyser Epoc(TM) / 임상검사와정도관리

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: A handheld blood gas analyser has been newly developed for mobile monitoring of blood gasses and electrolytes. We evaluated the performance of a portable blood gas analyser, Epoc(TM) (Epocal Inc., Canada) according to Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines, and compared it to that of a conventional analyser used in clinical laboratories. METHODS: Precision and percent carry-over were determined using three levels of aqueous and hematocrit control materials according to CLSI EP10-A3. Linearity was determined using five levels of control materials according to CLSI EP6-A. The pH, pCO2, pO2, Na+, K+, Ca2+, glucose, lactate, and hematocrit levels were compared between the Epoc(TM) and Stat Profile Critical Care Xpress (STP CCX; Nova Biomedical, USA) analysers using whole blood samples from 40 subjects according to CLSI EP9-A2. RESULTS: The coefficient of variation of the within-run precision and total precision were 0.000% to 4.563% and 0.000% to 5.298%, respectively. The carry-over was within 5%. The Epoc(TM) analyser showed excellent linearity for all nine parameters evaluated. For the comparison study, the Epoc(TM) and conventional analysers showed comparable results (correlation coefficient [r]=0.900-0.995), except for hematocrit (r=0.764). CONCLUSIONS: The Epoc(TM) POC analyser shows reliable analytical precision and is comparable to the traditional bench-top blood gas analysers. It could be useful in clinical settings, especially in operating rooms and pediatric intensive care units.