AN EVALUATION OF THE SPUNCRIT(TM) INFRARED ANALYZER FOR MEASUREMENT OF HEMATOCRIT

An open, single centre study was carried out to evaluate the accuracy of the Spuncrit(TM) (Micro Diagnostics, Bethlehem, PA, USA) infra-red analyser which can be used for near-patient testing to measure haemato crit and estimate haemoglobin concentration, The primary comparison wa s with the Sysmex NE1500 (Tao Medical) analyser situated in the main h ospital laboratory. Secondary comparison was with the Ciba Corning 288 (Ciba Corning Diagnostics Ltd, Halstead, UK) blood gas analyser curre ntly used for near-patient testing in the Northern General Hospital, A total of 217 samples from 50 patients was analysed, The Pearson's cor relation coefficients for haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration be tween the Spuncrit(TM) and Sysmex: NE1500 and between the Spuncrit(TM) and Ciba Corning 288 were all close, between 0.85 and 0.92. The metho d of Bland and Altman was used to asses agreement between the results of the Spuncrit(TM) and the Sysmex NE1500, The agreement for haematocr it was good with 2 SD of the Spuncrit(TM) results being between -5.66 and +4.42% of the measurement from the Sysmex NE1500. In conclusion, t he Spuncrit(TM) haematocrit measurement agreed well with results from the central laboratory, but the estimated haemoglobin concentrations a greed less well and three reasons are discussed.