Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Heinz bodies in cats can cause errors in blood bicarbonate tests
By Strage, Emma et al.·Published in Veterinary clinical pathology·2023·Department of Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Feline Heinz bodies interfering in standard bicarbonate analysis by the ABL90 FLEX.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
Two cats with a condition called Heinz body anemia, where abnormal red blood cells are present, had their blood tested for bicarbonate levels using a common blood gas analyzer. The machine had trouble providing accurate results due to the presence of these Heinz bodies, which caused it to issue an alarm about the measurements. However, when the cats were re-evaluated later, the Heinz bodies were significantly reduced, and the analyzer worked correctly without any alarms. This highlights the importance of understanding how certain blood conditions can affect test results in cats.
People also search for: cat blood test results · Heinz body anemia in cats · cat bicarbonate levels test
Abstract
Venous blood gases were analyzed with ABL90 FLEX in two cats with Heinz bodies in approximately 60% of the erythrocytes. The instrument demonstrated an inability to correctly report standard bicarbonate (stHCO), hematocrits, and hemoglobin concentrations by indicating an OXI spectrum mismatch alarm (ie, the spectrum of measured hemoglobin forms differed from the spectrum of calculated forms). Actual bicarbonate (aHCO) did not indicate any errors. The ABL90 FLEX uses spectrophotometry to measure hemoglobin, and the presence of Heinz bodies interfered with the measurement in these cases. Because hemoglobin is included in the formula for calculating stHCO, the instrument gave an alarm for stHCO. At follow-up, Heinz bodies were present in only 2%-3% of the erythrocytes, and the ABL90 FLEX did not indicate any alarm messages. To the authors' knowledge, these are the first cases reported that have interference in stHCOmeasurements due to Heinz body formation using the ABL90 FLEX, a common blood gas instrument used in both veterinary and human critical care. The methodology used for evaluating acid-base status should be taken into consideration, and caution is needed when interpreting acid-base results in cats with Heinz bodies.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37950383/