There is a growing number of normal volunteers who agree to get an intraosseous (IO) needle placed. Here's another one!
Often you can draw blood out of the needle. How do you interpret the lab values? Are they the same as your peripheral blood draw? Should we even send the blood to the lab?
In a 2010 article in Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, peripheral IV blood from 10 volunteers was compared to blood drawn twice from a single IO line in the humerus. After discarding the first 2 mL of IO blood, the first IO sample was drawn (4 mL). Then a second IO sample was drawn (4 mL), which is equivalent to a sample with the first 6 mL discarded.
Interesting, not all IO labs correlated with IV labs. The good news is that a few critical ones do show correlation: creatitine, glucose, and hematocrit.
Thanks to Dr. Michael McGonigal at Trauma Professional's Blog for posting about this.
Reference
Miller LJ, Philbeck TE, Montez D, Spadaccini CJ. A new study of intraosseous blood for laboratory analysis. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2010 Sep;134(9):1253-60. Pubmed
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Just FYI- one electrolyte that was left of there was potassium- according to the trauma professional's blog it didn't correlate which would be good to know in a resuscitation setting. Great simple study though- would be interesting to see if it stands up in critically ill patients who happen to have an IO and IV labs.
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