The Rapidlab 348 blood gas analyser has been used to obtain accurate blood gas measurements near the summit of Mount Everest during the recent 2007 Caudwell Xtreme Everest Medical Research Expedition
Part of Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics' range of portable critical care instruments, the Rapidlab 348 was used to take measurements in freezing temperatures at an altitude of 8,457m and barometric pressure of approximately 300mmHg - well outside such an instrument's normal measuring range.
Unlike other portable blood gas analysers, the RapidLab 348 is the only commercially available instrument to have proved itself capable of adaptation for operation at a barometric pressure of less than 400mmHg, and it was this factor that led to its selection for use on the expedition in an appropriately optimised format.
Weighing 13.1kg and small enough to fit easily into a climber's back pack, the instrument is robust and readily transportable with low battery power requirements.
Crucially, it also has no need for liquid gas to be used for calibration purposes, as such reagents would be likely to explode at high altitudes.
Absence of a hard data drive (HDD) is a further advantage, since such storage media would be likely to distort and fail in conditions of low barometric pressure.
The measurements taken using the RapidLab 348 on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition are now being used by a group of doctors and medical scientists seeking to quantify the effects of oxygen deprivation on the human body at extreme altitude.
Since the summit of Everest stands at the limit of human ability to withstand low oxygen levels, it provided researchers with a 'natural laboratory' for mirroring the degree of oxygen deprivation suffered by critically-ill patients in intensive care.
Commenting on use of the RapidLab 348 during the expedition, Dr Daniel Martin, critical care scholar at London's UCL Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (part of the institute of Human Health and Performance), said: "The trip was a huge success.
"We got eight of our team on the summit along with two camera men and fifteen Sherpas.
"We got a blood gas from slightly below the summit (8475m) as the summit was too dangerous the day we were there due to very cold winds.
"The analyser worked perfectly after we fitted it with spares, and we got four good results from each other.
"We also got a lot of other data on the way up the mountain using the blood gas machine.
Referring to the performance of the RapidLab 348 and the support he and his colleagues had received from product specialists at Siemens Medical Solutions Diagnostics, he added: "It would not have been possible to do the blood gas analysis without it".
The blood gas data gathered on the expedition is now expected to provide scientists with invaluable information impacting across a broad spectrum of life-saving medical treatments.
