THE NEED FOR QUALITY-CONTROL IN MEASUREMENT OF MIXED VENOUS OXYGEN-SATURATION

We investigated the variability of arterial, mixed venous and peripher al venous oxygen saturation readings in three co-oximeters in regular use on two Intensive Care Units. Over a 2-week period, 96 readings wer e obtained from each of the following machines; two AVL 912 co-oxylite co-oximeters (Machines A and B, Biomedical Instruments, Graz, Austral ia) and one lL-282 (Machine C, Instrumentation Laboratories, Lexington , MA, USA). The coefficient of variation bl the arterial oxygen satura tions was extremely small on all three machines (< 0.43%). The coeffic ient of variation in the mixed venous samples, however, ranged from 1. 96 to 4.61 % on machine A, and from 2.73 to 4.71% on machine B, but on ly from 0.17 to 1.47% on machine C. The variation in mixed venous satu rations obtained from a single blood sample repeatedly analysed on mac hines A and B was large enough to influence clinical management.