[Changes in gasometric values as a result of plastic syringes refrigeration]

With the objective to carry out a quality control check on the storage of arterial blood samples in order to take postponed gasometric measurements, the authors designed an experimental comparative study of paired blood samples, one in refrigerated plastic syringes and the other kept at room temperature to study the effectiveness or not of refrigerating this type of syringes. The results obtained in this study contradict the rules of protocols currently in use since these results, advise against the refrigeration of this material since that produces a significant increase in the values of partial oxygen pressure. However, the changes in pH and pCO2 do not show any significant statistical importance. The authors provide an explanation to this phenomenon and they recommend that working protocols be corrected to not refrigerate blood samples if these are taken with common plastic, polypropylene, syringes.