Is a blood sample for hemoglobins in the transfusional range reliable?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the correlation and agreement in our unit and population of hemoglobin in gasometry versus hematology analyzer, to evaluate errors in transfusion or lack thereof.

RESULTS: strong association between Point-of-care (POC) and hematimetry, with P<.001, with a coefficient of determination r2 of 0.56, an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.63 and a Lin's concordance correlation coefficient of 0.65. For hemoglobins less than 7g/dL, a success rate of 29.41% was obtained.

CONCLUSIONS: Low-moderate agreement of POC hemoglobin with standard haemothymetry. High probability of errors in the indication of transfusion based on gasometer hemoglobins, especially in low hemoglobins.