The study of some possible measurement errors in clinical blood electrolyte potentiometric (ISE) analysers

The understanding of the most important sources of error in potentiometric blood analyser which might contribute to better instruments measurement repeatability is very often marginalized in fabrications and daily operation of some commercial blood analysers. In this paper ISEs-potentiometric measurements were performed and validated in Clinical Institute of Laboratory Diagnosis of the Zagreb University School of Medicine and Clinical Hospital Centre, using a carefully designed and constructed fully automated (computerised) homemade ISE-based blood electrolyte analyser constructed with an in-line five-channel flow-through measuring cell. The influence of electrolyte concentration of the salt bridge is reported. Special attention has been paid to the reference electrode design, and constructions which can operate in open liquid junction and membrane restricted liquid junction modes are described.