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Blood Gases, Critical Care Panel

Panel: Critical Care Panel

Test Codes

EPIC: LAB7021, CCP

Department

Chemistry

Instructions

Blood Gases, Critical Care Panel specimens should ONLY be collected at the Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Taylor, Trenton, Troy, or Wayne Hospital Campuses. Specimens should NOT be collected at any other Beaumont Laboratory drawsite, nursing home, or Outreach office. 

Specimen Collection Criteria

Collect: Arterial heparinized whole blood.

• A 1 mL or 3 mL plastic syringe containing dry heparin is preferred for specimen collection.
• At least 1–2 mL (0.3 mL for pediatric patients) of blood is needed to ensure proper assay.
• Arterial specimens are collected by a physician, nurse, or respiratory therapist.

Collection Requirements:

• For specimens collected by syringe, any air bubbles present in the syringe must be immediately expelled, the needle removed, and the syringe tightly capped. The syringe is rolled between the palms of the hands to ensure mixing.
  • NOTE: The Radiometer safePico Self-fill^TM syringe has a metal ball to ensure homogeneous mixing when the syringe is rolled between the palms of the hands.
• Characterization of oxygen enrichment, at the time of arterial puncture, is required to fully evaluate arterial blood gas results. This may be expressed as FiO2 fractional inspired oxygen concentration provided (e.g. 0.50), FiO2% (e.g. 50%), room air, or nasal cannula flow rate in liters per minute. The FiO2 must be noted on the requisition or entered as part of the electronic order for any arterial blood gas specimen. It is not possible to fully evaluate arterial blood gas results without knowledge of the oxygen concentration or nasal flow rate being delivered to a patient at the time of blood draw.
• The specimen must be properly labeled.
• Place on wet ice for transport. Ice and Specimen must be kept separated.
  • Suggested: Place specimen in front pocket of the biohazard bag. Place ice in zip lock section of biohazard bag.
• The specimen must be transported immediately to the STAT Laboratory (Royal Oak) or to the Chemistry Laboratories.

Rejection Criteria

• Clotted specimens.
• Specimens not collected and processed as indicated, including samples with unexpelled air.
• Specimens received past 1 hour from the time of collection or without a documented collection time.

Inpatient Specimen Preparation

The specimen must be transported STAT, on wet ice, to the STAT Laboratory (Royal Oak) or Chemistry Laboratories.

In-Lab Processing

Immediately analyze the whole blood, heparinized, iced specimen upon receipt.

Storage

Specimen Stability for Testing:

Room Temperature (20–26°C or 68–78.8°F): Unacceptable
Refrigerated (2–8°C or 36–46°F): 1 hour
Frozen (-20°C/-4°F or below): Unacceptable

Specimen Storage in Department Prior to Disposal:

Specimens are disposed within 8 hours of testing.

Laboratory

Dearborn Chemistry Laboratory
Farmington Hills Chemistry Laboratory 
Grosse Pointe Chemistry Laboratory 
Royal Oak STAT Laboratory
Troy Chemistry Laboratory
Taylor Chemistry Laboratory
Trenton Chemistry Laboratory
Wayne Chemistry Laboratory 

Performed

Sunday – Saturday, 24 hours a day.
Results available within 15 minutes of receipt in the Laboratory.

Reference Range

See specific assays for reference range. This panel includes: Blood Gases, Chloride, Glucose, Hemoglobin, Ionized Calcium, Potassium, Sodium and Lactate.

Test Methodology

Potentiometry, Amperometry, Absorption Spectrophotometry.

Clinical Utility

This panel provides rapid information on blood oxygenation, acid-base status, electrolyte and glucose balance in critically-ill patients, particularly if diabetic, and in patients where results are needed quickly, e.g. in cardiopulmonary bypass patients.

CPT Codes

82330, 82435, 82805, 82947, 84132, 84295, 83605, 85018

Contacts

Last Updated

8/31/2023