Comparison of peripheral venous and arterial blood gas in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD): a meta-analysis

The objective of this meta-analysis was to identify the correlation between arterial blood gas (ABG) and venous blood gas (VBG) analysis in patients with acute exacerbation chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Seven relevant literature entries from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on 1234 patients were included in the analysis. Variables derived from the investigations, which were presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) in both ABG and VBG, were converted into mean differences (MDs) (mean ± SD) by subtracting venous values from arterial values. For the purposes of pooling the MDs, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were required. Stata version 13.0 software was used to perform the statistical analysis. As a result, the pooled MD for the potential of hydrogen (pH) was 0.02 pH units (ABG minus VBG) (95% CI, 0.02–0.03), for partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO 2 ) −2.91 mm Hg (95% CI, −4.23 to −1.59), for partial pressure of oxygen (PO 2 ) 13.13 mm Hg (95% CI, 9.13–17.12), and for bicarbonate (HCO 3 − ) −0.22 mmol/l (95% CI, −0.62 to 0.18). In conclusion, VBG analysis compares well with ABG for pH, PCO 2 , and HCO 3 estimations, but not for PO 2 in patients with AECOPD.