A systemic concern with arterial blood gas analysers in patients with increased temperatures that has the potential to adversely impact on patient care: an observational study

Measurement of blood gases is one of the most important analytical tests used to assess critically ill patients. As fever is well recognised to modify blood gas measurements,1 2 blood gas machine derived parameters, including pH, depend on imputation of a patient’s current temperature. This, in turn, allows an algorithm to modify the blood gas analyser output, providing a temperature-corrected value.3 We explored the potential impact that inadvertently using the inaccurate temperature-uncorrected pH would have on clinical decision-making compared with using the temperature-corrected pH.