RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Laboratory interpretative comments and guidance: clinical and operative outcomes on moderate to severe hyponatraemia patient management
JF Journal of Clinical Pathology
JO J Clin Pathol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Association of Clinical Pathologists
SP jclinpath-2021-207611
DO 10.1136/jclinpath-2021-207611
A1 Blanca Montero-San-Martín
A1 Paloma Oliver
A1 Pilar Fernandez-Calle
A1 Juan J Sánchez-Pascuala Callau
A1 Mariana Díaz Almirón
A1 María J Alcaide Martín
A1 Belen Fernández-Puntero
A1 Marta Duque Alcorta
A1 José M Valero Recio
A1 Alejandro Martín Quirós
A1 María de Ceano-Vivas la Calle
A1 Julia Martín Sánchez
A1 Begoña Rivas Becerra
A1 Cristina Vega Cabrera
A1 Marta Melgosa Hijosa
A1 Antonio Buno Soto
YR 2021
UL http://jcp.bmj.com/content/early/2021/09/23/jclinpath-2021-207611.abstract
AB Aims Hyponatraemia is the most common body fluid disorders but often goes unnoticed. Our laboratory incorporated a standardised procedure to help clinicians detect moderate/severe hyponatraemia. The study aims were to evaluate the outcomes on patient care and clinicians’ satisfaction.Methods The study, observational and retrospective, included 1839 cases, adult and paediatric patients, with sodium concentration <130 mmol/L. The procedure consisted of interpretative comments in the emergency and core laboratories report and the point-of-care testing blood gas network report. We evaluated hyponatraemia length in two equal periods: before and after the implementation. We conducted a survey addressed to the staff of the clinical settings involved to know their satisfaction.Results The median hyponatraemia length decreased significantly from 4.95 hours (2.08–16.57) in the first period to 2.17 hours (1.06–5.39) in the second period. The lack of hyponatraemia patients follow-up was significantly less after the procedure implementation. The survey was answered by 92 (60 senior specialists and 32 residents) out of 110 clinicians surveyed. Ninety of them (98%) answered positively.Conclusions We have demonstrated the reduction in the time for diagnosing and management by physicians, the higher uniformity in the time required to solve hyponatraemia episodes following our laboratory procedure and the clinicians’ satisfaction.All data relevant to the study are included in the article. We collected study data from the laboratory information system of our hospital.