Cord blood gases trivial answers

Now, let's see how well you did on trivia questions from earlier today.  The answers are in red.

Let's see how much you guys have been paying attention to my blog. What follows are two cord blood gases and a few questions:

A.

• pH 7.36
• CO2 42.8
• PO2 33.7
• SO2 80.5
• FO2Hb 75.7
• HCO3 23.8
• BE -1.1

B.

• pH 7.27
• CO2 58.8
• PO2 12.3
• SO2 19.5
• FO2Hb 18.8
• HCO3 26.3
• BE -1.3

Questions

1. Which one of the above is arterial and which one is venous?  B is venous and A is Arterial

2. Are these results normal or critical?  Normal

3. What did you use for the basis to answer question #2? Or, how do you determine if a cord blood gas is critical?  pH is greater than 7.1.  If the pH is less than 7.1 it shows the baby probably took an anoxic hit during delivery and didn't have time to recover prior to birth.  A pH of greater than 7.1 shows the baby may have taken an anoxic hit, but it occurred prior to delivery and the baby had time to recover.  

4. If you can only draw venous or arterial from the cord, which would you rather have: venous or arterial? Arterial. This is blood from the mom.  

5. Do cord blood gases have clinical significance?  No.  They are used for litigation purposes only to prove the baby did or did not take an anoxic hit during the delivery.  Arterial blood gases get doctors off the hook in about 75 percent of cases.