Tasty Morsels of EM 001

31 May

I keep a little, ever-expanding note on my phone where I jot down little morsels of goodness that I pick up while listening to or reading one of the many excellent sites/podcasts in the useful resource section.

I’ll try and transfer them here for your enlightenment. 

Not something I’ve ever had to deal with but picked this up off Renal fellow network. Don’t ask me why I was reading it, it’s largely over my head but this was a gem.

In ethylene glycol poisoning in lieu of getting a level (which will arrive 2 weeks after the funeral) you can measure the “lactate gap”. This is the difference between the lactate measured on two different instruments

  • the ABG machine
  • the fancy lab one

Ethylene glycol metabolites interfere with the lactate assay and the gap between the two measurements gives an approximation for the level.

This obviously depends on your lab using a different method for measuring the lactate than your ABG machine.

Click the link for more (informed) info. Feel free to let me know if i’ve picked this up all wrong!

 

 

2 Replies to “Tasty Morsels of EM 001

  1. Basically only good for med trivia purposes but due to an additive to screen wash so mechanics can identify leaks the screen wash fluoresces under a woods light…when we had a patient on ICU with severe metabolic acidosis (lactate too high to read on ABG machine – don’t think a lab one was ever thought about) I managed to track a light down – a consultant dermatologist dusted one off from the back of the draw and donated it to the department. Flash forward to me in the staff toilets with the light off wielding a pot of wee and a pot of water. Unfortunately it didn’t fluoresce – already on RRT and >24hrs down the line…next time!

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