In vitro assessment of a flow-through fluorometric blood gas monitor.

The Gas-STAT blood gas monitor uses fluorometric techniques to continuously monitor blood gas tensions and acid-base status in the extracorporeal perfusion circuit during cardiac surgery. We evaluated the in vitro performance of this instrument by using a tonometry loop to simulate the clinical environment and to provide controlled gas tensions and pH in the circulating fluid. In this article we report the in vitro study in which 35 Gas-STAT blood gas sensors were used to assess the precision, stability, response time, and specificity of the instrument and to confirm the sterile integrity of its flow-through cells. The blood gas monitor exhibited precision values for pH, carbon dioxide tension (PCO2), and oxygen tension (PO2) of 0.1%, 1.3%, and 1.0%, respectively; stabilities were 0.002 units/h for pH, 0.5 mm Hg/h for PCO2, and 1.4 mm Hg/h for PO2; time constants (tau, a response to within 1/e of a new gas tension, approximately 63%) were 81 seconds for PCO2 and 72 seconds for PO2. No significant interference was detected in in vitro tests of 30 drugs and metabolites typically encountered during cardiac surgery. Bacterial challenge of the flow-through cell membranes showed that they provide an effective barrier isolating the sensors from contaminants in the fluid path. Our quality control consisted of measurement of a midrange gas standard as an unknown immediately following sensor calibration; this simple program is proposed as a complement to the manufacturer's operating procedures.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)