Chest ACCP Education Calendar
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Guest Access | Sign In via User Name/Password
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Free
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Free
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Article Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kohn, G. L.
Right arrow Articles by Hardie, W. D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kohn, G. L.
Right arrow Articles by Hardie, W. D.
(Chest. 2000;118:1626-1629.)
© 2000 American College of Chest Physicians

Measuring Pleural Fluid pH*

High Correlation of a Handheld Unit to a Traditional Tabletop Blood Gas Analyzer

Gary L. Kohn, MD and William D. Hardie, MD

* From the Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH.

Correspondence to: William D. Hardie, MD, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, OSB-5, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229; e-mail: bill.hardie{at}chmcc.org

Study purposes: To survey hospital laboratories in the United States to determine methods used for measuring pleural fluid pH, and to compare pleural fluid pH values obtained with a traditional tabletop blood gas analyzer (BGA) to those obtained with a handheld analyzer.

Methods: Hospital laboratories nationwide were contacted by telephone to survey the methods used to measure pleural fluid pH. In a second phase, pleural fluid was prospectively collected from 19 pediatric and adult patients with pleural effusions, and pleural fluid pH was measured simultaneously with a traditional tabletop BGA and with a handheld unit.

Results: A total of 220 hospital laboratories were contacted by telephone, and 166 responded (75%). The methods for determining pleural fluid pH for all hospital laboratories were pH meter (35%; n = 59), BGA (32%; n = 53), and litmus paper (31%: n = 51); 2% (n = 3) did not perform the test. University hospitals were more likely to use a BGA, compared to community hospitals (p < 0.014) or children’s hospitals (p < 0.001). In the comparison of pleural fluid measurements, the mean pH for the traditional BGA was 7.358 ± 0.189, and the mean pH for the handheld unit was 7.382 ± 0.203. The absolute difference between the two machines was 0.024 U, and the two methods were correlated (p < 0.01; r = 0.993; degrees of freedom = 36).

Conclusion: Most hospital laboratories in the United States do not measure pleural fluid pH using a traditional BGA and use alternative methods that have previously been shown to be inaccurate. Pleural fluid pH obtained by a handheld unit has a high degree of correlation to that of a traditional tabletop BGA, and it offers a satisfactory alternative for laboratories reluctant to measure pleural fluid pH with a BGA.

Key Words: blood gas machine • pH • pH meter • pleural effusions






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2000 by the American College of Chest Physicians.