Intensive Care Unit Highlights Clot Protection Benefits of New Blood Gas Testing System

The excellent clot protection capabilities of the Roche cobas b 123 POC system have been highlighted in an evaluation undertaken in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Stepping Hill Hospital (Stockport NHS Foundation Trust).

Clotting of samples is always a concern in POC testing systems, particularly in neonates for whom blood gases are the most common test performed, and can lead to delayed results/treatment, inconvenient analyzer downtime and increased stress/work for hospital staff.

175 patient samples were analyzed throughout the evaluation, including approximately 30 samples that were considered ‘high risk’ for clotting. The tests were performed by nursing staff and quality control testing was performed automatically by AutoQC twice per day.

“We never had a problem with clots throughout the entire evaluation, despite using a wide variety of samples of varying condition and age,” said Samantha Ekin, Point of Care Co-ordinator at the Trust. “I can see that this will be vital in a delivery suite setting where the quality of samples can be lower. The small size of the analyzer is great as it can be housed more easily and it is portable, if required.”

The cobas b 123 is specifically designed to eliminate the risk of clot blockages so that: a) unnecessary disruption to routine and patient care can be prevented; and b) time and resources are not wasted.

The analyzer’s new clot clearance feature stops clots present in a sample moving from the syringe or capillary into the analyzer. It does this using a dual-action pre-analytical barrier, with bottlenecks in the sample port needle and the co-oximetry measuring chamber, and any clots collected are simply rinsed away with the sample by the automated default washing routine. In-built optical sensors detect whether the lack of fluid path flow is due to a clot. If it is, the analyzer performs a series of automated expulsion steps to remove the clot before continuing analysis uninterrupted.

To date, in both internal and external on-going evaluations, no downtime owing to clots has been reported for the cobas b 123. The system is also very easy to use and requires very little maintenance.

“The whole process of analyzing a patient sample was very easy for the operator with minimal steps and easy on screen prompts,” Samantha Ekin continues. “This is very important, because if the nurses like the analyzer, they will have confidence to use it and confidence in the results. The low maintenance is also extremely important, especially for ‘out of hours’ work, as it enables the operators to perform any maintenance that might be required.”

“As operation is very easy, it also makes training very simple,” she continues. “This reduces the time required for training, which will hopefully make it more accessible to a larger number of staff.”