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Two different hematocrit detection methods: different methods, different results?
Marco Bosshart1, John F Stover, Reto Stocker
1Surgical Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Zurich, CH 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
Background:
Less is known about the influence of hematocrit detection methodology on transfusion triggers. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare two different hematocrit-assessing methods. In a total of 50 critically ill patients hematocrit was analyzed using (1) blood gas analyzer (ABLflex 800) and (2) the central laboratory method (ADVIA® 2120) and compared.
Findings:
Bland-Altman analysis for repeated measurements showed a good correlation with a bias of +1.39% and 2 SD of +/- 3.12%. The 24%-hematocrit-group showed a correlation of r2 = 0.87. With a kappa of 0.56, 22.7% of the cases would have been transfused differently. In the-28%-hematocrit group with a similar correlation (r2 = 0.8) and a kappa of 0.58, 21% of the cases would have been transfused differently.
Conclusions:
Despite a good agreement between the two methods used to determine hematocrit in clinical routine, the calculated difference of 1.4% might substantially influence transfusion triggers depending on the employed method.
