It’s often important to monitor the various levels of analytes in a hospitalized patient’s blood. This **rmally requires Blood draws that are then placed in a nearby device or are sent to the hospital’s lab for analysis, a process that takes considerable time and delivers slow results. Sphere Medical out of Cambridge, England just received European CE Mark approval for its Proxima arterial Blood analyzer, a device that provides Real-Time results of Blood gas, hematocrit, and electrolyte measurements as often as necessary.
The Proxima is connected to the arterial line that the patient would **rmally have and Blood is drawn into the sensor for testing. A nearby touchscreen control panel is used to initiate tests and for displaying results. Tests can be performed at any time and don’t cost anything additionally for each run. Once a reading is performed, the sampled Blood is returned back into the patient. The disposable device has a 72 hour lifetime and does have to be calibrated regularly during that time to guarantee quality readings.