Annals of clinical biochemistry
-
Ann. Clin. Biochem. · Jan 2012
Detection of patients with acute kidney injury by the clinical laboratory using rises in serum creatinine: comparison of proposed definitions and a laboratory delta check.
Timely detection of acute kidney injury (AKI) in hospital patients has been hampered by the multiple definitions of AKI and difficulties applying their criteria. A laboratory delta check may provide an effective means of detecting patients developing AKI. This study compared three of the proposed AKI definitions and a delta check to detect AKI using serum creatinine results of hospital inpatients. ⋯ The different definitions proposed for AKI detect different populations of patients. A laboratory delta check detected 98% of all the patients identified by AKIN, RIFLE and Waikar & Bonventre combined and could therefore provide a practical way of detecting AKI patients.
-
Ann. Clin. Biochem. · Nov 2011
Variation in phlebotomy techniques in emergency medicine and the incidence of haemolysed samples.
Phlebotomy is a potential cause of preanalytical errors. We have observed phlebotomy in routine practice in a busy Emergency Department, to see how current practice compares with optimal blood sampling. ⋯ This study has shown that phlebotomy techniques in the Emergency Department deviate from standard practice significantly. This may well be a reason for the much higher frequency of haemolysed samples and with the wrong order of collection the possibility of potassium-EDTA-contaminated samples.