• E West, D Bardell, and J M Senior.
• School of Veterinary Science, Leahurst Campus, University of Liverpool, Neston, CH64 7TE.
• J Small Anim Pract. 2014 Mar 1;55(3):139-44.

ObjectivesA prospective study to evaluate agreement and precision of a new point-of-care portable analyser, the EPOC analyser, compared with the i-STAT analyser in canine blood.MethodsBlood samples (68 venous and 32 arterial) were obtained from 63 client-owned dogs for clinical reasons and surplus blood was used to analyse agreement between the EPOC and i-STAT analysers. Precision of the EPOC analyser was also assessed by repeat analysis of 20 samples. Measured analytes included pH, partial pressures of carbon dioxide and oxygen and concentrations of sodium, potassium, ionised calcium, glucose and haematocrit. Haemoglobin, base excess, bicarbonate and saturation of haemoglobin with oxygen were calculated.ResultsEPOC precision was acceptable, but agreement was poor for sodium, haematocrit, haemoglobin and base excess. Overall, method comparison was poor for pH, partial pressure of oxygen, sodium, haematocrit, haemoglobin and base excess.Clinical SignificanceThe EPOC analyser is useful for dogs, although clinically significant differences between the EPOC and i-STAT analysers exist for some analytes, and as such these analysers should not be used interchangeably.© 2014 British Small Animal Veterinary Association.

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