COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF CAPILLARY BLOOD GASES AS WITH ARTERIAL BLOOD GASES IN PATIENTS OF COPD WITH ACUTE EXACERBATION PRESENTING TO EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between selected variables of capillary blood gas (CBG) and Arterial blood gas (ABG)values for assessing values of pH, bicarbonate (HCO3), partial pressure of oxygen (pO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in patients with acute exacerbation of COPD presenting to the Emergency department of Peerless hospital. Our study on reliability of CBG over ABG is aimed to make blood gas analysis easier, quicker, less painful and equally reliable. Settings And Design: This was a prospective observational study carried out in a tertiary care centre in Kolkata. Materials And Methods: This study was carried out in Peerless hospital and B.K.Roy Research Centre, Kolkata over a period of 1 year. Total of 90 patients who presented to Emergency department with acute exacerbation of COPD patients were included in the study. Informed consent was taken from all the patients recruited in this study. The blood samples were drawn simultaneously from the radial artery by an arterial puncture into a heparinized syringe and the fingertip by a finger prick into a capillary tube of every patient participating in the study. Initially, capillary sample was collected and immediately after that, an arterial sample was taken from the radial artery in order to assess the agreement between the capillary and arterial samples. These samples obtained were analysed immediately by the blood gas analyser (AVL Compact 3, Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) of the Emergency Department for values of acid-base and oxygenation: pH, PO2, PCO2and HCO3 values. Blood gases were obtained only if the patient needed blood gases analysis for clinical decisions. Care was taken to avoid exposing the blood droplet to air, and the arterial sample was continuously turned to avoid clotting. In addition, the measurement of oxygen saturation (SpO2) was also obtained from the finger pulse oximeter in the emergency (Noninvasive pulse oximeter).