COMPARISON OF SERUM ELECTROLYTES MEASUREMENT USING ABG ANALYSER AND ELECTROLYTE ANALYSER IN PATIENTS ADMITTED IN ICU

Electrolytes are crucial for establishing and maintaining the electrical potential across cell membranes. Electrolyte abnormalities can precipitate life-threatening events. The incidence of electrolyte disorders is nearly 25% in ICU patients. Ion selective electrodes (ISEs) are so far commonly used method for electrolytes estimation in clinical laboratories. Studies using different devices have reported different results. Consequently, determining how well different methods align in their electrolyte readings is important. Comparisons of electrolyte results from arterial (ABG analyzer) and serum (electrolyte analyzer) samples, both utilizing the direct, non-diluting ISE method, have been the subject in this study. The objective to investigate whether the results of electrolytes measures on electrolyte analyser and ABG analyser are equal when used to assess electrolyte levels (sodium, potassium & chloride). The gap is usually small (1-4 mmol/L) but in critically ill patients or in sever hyperlipidemia / hyperprotenemia; the difference can be clinically significant. our study we concluded that if there is a large difference between the two methods in the same patient, one should check for hyperlipidemia, hyperproteinemia, as hemolyses before deciding which result is more reliable.