Comparison of time taken to obtain an arterial blood gas result at the bedside using the Proxima point of care machine vs. a standard remote arterial blood gas analyser: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: The Proxima point of care (POC) device enables arterial blood gas (ABG) samples to be analysed without the nurse leaving the patient. The benefits of this for work efficiency have not been evaluated.

Methods: We compared the time taken to obtain an ABG result using Proxima versus a standard ABG sampling system.

Performance evaluation of a whole blood propofol analyser.

The authors evaluated an analyser for the determination of propofol concentrations in whole blood. The Pelorus 1000 (Sphere Medical) measures propofol concentrations in around 5 min without the requirement for sample preparation. The performance of the analyser was characterised with respect to linearity, precision in control solutions and whole blood and method comparison to an HPLC based reference method.