Ionized calcium: analytical challenges and clinical relevance

Ionized calcium: its significance and clinical usefulness.

Maintenance of normal blood levels of ionized calcium (Ca2+) plays an important role in the management of the critically ill patient. Therefore, Ca2+ should be collected properly and measured reliably. The sound analytical performance of today's Ca2+ analyzers using ion-selective electrode technology have made measurements accurate and precise. The introduction of this technology allows rapid a...

Ionized calcium

pH-adjusted ionized calcium

Reducing routine ionized calcium measurement.

BACKGROUND Ionized calcium (iCa) is measured frequently in hospitalized patients, and hypocalcemia is frequently found, seemingly supporting the practice. METHODS We retrieved the results of 58 040 iCa tests and records of intravenous (IV) and oral calcium supplementation from laboratory and hospital information systems and evaluated them for frequency of testing, frequency of hypocalcemia, a...

Facilitated determination of ionized calcium.

Using a calcium-containing heparin preparation for anticoagulation, we determined [Ca2+], the mean concentration of ionized calcium, in whole blood of 120 healthy blood-donors to be 1.23 (SD 0.04) mmol/L. Similarly, for 50 intensive-care patients selected without conscious bias, the correlation between [Ca2+] in serum (mean 1.15, SD 0.10 mmol/L) and in whole-blood samples anticoagulated with th...