Transcutaneous carbon dioxide and oxygen tension measured at different temperatures in healthy adults

Transcutaneous carbon dioxide tension (tc-pco2) at 37, 39, 41, 43, and 45 degrees C, and transcutaneous oxygen tension (tc-po2) at 41, 43, and 45 degrees C were measured simultaneously in 10 healthy adults during hyperventilation and inhalation of O2/CO2 gas. Nine electrodes were applied to each subject: Five CO2 electrodes, one O2 electrode, and three combined O2/CO2 electrodes. The CO2 electrodes had negligible temperature coefficients in the calibration gases, but the O2 electrodes showed an increase in po2 of 4.5% per degree C. With skin application, tc-pco2 increased approximately 4% per degrees C between 37 and 45 degrees C, which is close to the anaerobic temperature coefficient of pco2 in blood. The tc-po2 increases on the skin with increasing temperature appeared to be more dependent on changes in blood flow in skin, but in the temperature range 43 to 45 degrees C, tc-po2 showed the expected decrease in the temperature coefficient with increasing po2. The correlation between transcutaneous and capillary pco2 was close at all transcutaneous electrode temperatures, even 37 degrees C, provided the skin was preheated (via the electrode) to 45 degrees C. For tc-po2, an electrode temperature of at least 43 degrees C was necessary to produce a reasonable correlation between tc-po2 and capillary po2. The combined O2/CO2 electrodes measured slightly higher pco2 values than the single CO2 electrodes, but there were no differences in po2 readings, stabilization time, imprecision, or electrode drift between the two electrode types. The imprecision (CV, %) of tc-pco2 and tc-po2 measurements was approximately twice that of the corresponding capillary blood-gas measurements.