Correlation study between serum and blood gas analysis determination of glucose, sodium and potassium in hospitalized patients in the Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Dr. Carlos Sáenz Herrera National Children’s Hospital of Cost

Abstract

At the Clinical Laboratory of the National Children’s Hospital of Costa Rica, duplicate samples are currently received for monitoring glucose, sodium, and potassium levels in critically ill patients. This study compared the results obtained from the Beckman Coulter DxC 700 AU analyzer and the RAPIDpoint 500e blood gas analyzers using two non-parametric statistical analyses. First, the correlation between both instruments was evaluated, yielding Spearman correlation coefficients greater than 0.99 for all three analytes. Subsequently, the Wilcoxon test was applied to assess statistically significant differences between the results. No significant differences were found for glucose (p = 0.1382), while sodium and potassium showed significant differences (p < 0.001). Finally, based on the CLSI EP23 guideline, a risk analysis was conducted to evaluate each platform. It was concluded that there is a very strong correlation between the glucose, sodium, and potassium results provided by biochemistry analyzers and blood gas analyzers and for the monitoring of critically ill patients, the RAPIDpoint 500e analyzers present fewer high and critical risks compared to the Beckman Coulter DxC 700 AU analyzer.