Evaluation of an ion-selective electrolyte analyzer: Microlyte 6

• Published in: Folia medica (Plovdiv) Vol. 39; no. 1; p. 34
• Main Authors: Markova, V, Sirakova, I, Tsvetkova, T, Nikolov, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bulgaria 1997
• Subjects: Chemistry, Clinical - instrumentation; Chemistry, Clinical - statistics & numerical data; Electrodes; Electrolytes - blood; Humans; Reference Values
• ISSN: 0204-8043

Microlyte 6 (Kone, Finland) is an ion-selective analyzer designed to measure simultaneously the concentration of six important electrolyte parameters--potassium, sodium, chloride, ionized calcium, ionized magnesium and pH in whole blood, serum and plasma. Two values are obtained in analyzing the ionized fractions of magnesium and calcium--one at the actual pH and another at a recalculated measurement for pH = 7.4. Direct determination of ionized calcium and ionized magnesium simultaneously with that of the other electrolytes is of great clinical significance. It is only recently that ion-selective analysis of ionized magnesium has been proposed. The analytical reliability of the results and the operational characteristics of the Microlyte 6 ion-selective analyzer were evaluated for approximately one year. The coefficient of variation of the results in the reference and pathological range was 0.49%-2.23%, and 0.68%-4.42% for the within-run and between-run series, respectively. The inaccuracy of the results expressed by d% was from -4.23% to +4.06%. The comparative evaluation of the results for potassium, sodium, chloride, and ionized calcium between Microlyte-6 and the clinical chemistry analyzer Dynamic (Kone) showed a high correlation (correlation coefficient in the range 0.9868-0.9970). The correlation between the results for the ionized fraction and those obtained for total magnesium was consistent with that generally given in the literature.