• Parvaiz A Koul, Umar Hafiz Khan, Abdul Ahad Wani, Rafiqa Eachkoti, Rafi A Jan, Sanaullah Shah, Zarka Masoodi, Syed Mudassir Qadri, Muneer Ahmad, and Asrar Ahmad.
• Department of Internal and Pulmonary Medicine, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, India.
• Ann Thorac Med. 2011 Jan 1; 6 (1): 33-7.

BackgroundArterial blood gas (ABG) analysis is routinely performed for sick patients but is fraught with complications, is painful, and is technically demanding.ObjectiveTo ascertain agreement between the arterial and peripheral venous measurement of pH, pCO(2), pO(2), and bicarbonate levels in sick patients with cardiopulmonary disorders in the valley of Kashmir in the Indian subcontinent, so as to use venous gas analysis instead of arterial for assessment of patients.SettingSher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Kashmir, a 650-bedded tertiary care hospital in North India located at an altitude of 1584 m.MethodsOne hundred patients who required ABG analysis were admitted. Peripheral venous blood was drawn within 5 min of an ABG measurement, and the samples analyzed immediately on a point of care automated ABG analyzer. Finger pulse oximetry was used to obtain oxygen (SpO(2)) saturation. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and bias (Bland Altman) methods.ResultsThe venous measurements of pH, pCO(2), pO(2) and bicarbonate, and the digital oxygen saturation were highly correlated with their corresponding arterial measurements. Bland Altman plots demonstrated a high degree of agreement between the two corresponding sets of measurements with clinically acceptable differences. The difference in pO(2) measurements was, however, higher (-22.34 ± 15.23) although the arterial saturation and finger oximetry revealed a good degree of agreement with clinically acceptable bias.ConclusionPeripheral venous blood gas assessment in conjunction with finger pulse oximetry can obviate the routine use of arterial puncture in patients requiring ABG analysis.

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