Terumo Cardiovascular Systems

Terumo’s Perfusion Clinical Specialist team is another demonstration of Terumo’s commitment to the perfusion community:

Fully-resourced team:

For a decade, Terumo has continued to increase the number of Clinical Specialists on its team—they can respond more quickly and focus more fully on the needs of each customer.

Years of experience:

The team has 150 years of combined clinical, technical and scientific expertise.

Hundreds of O.R.s visited annually:

Their knowledge is based on practical experience.

Full-time focus:

All Terumo Clinical Specialists are dedicated full-time to the clinical support of Terumo products. They provide clinical input during new product development, support clinical trials and laboratory studies, and design training programs.

No other manufacturer provides the same depth and breadth of clinical support. 1

Question of the Quarter

 

    • January 2010

      I recently purchased a Fresenius C.A.T.S Continuous Autotransfusion System, and as a part of my Quality Control program I measure potassium levels to assure the machine is functioning properly. I’m consistently getting higher potassium values than with my old bowl system cell saver. Can you explain why this is the case?

    • The measurement of potassium (K+) is a serum or plasma measured constituent. Let’s say you get a sample of the blood from the C.A.T.S system with an Hct of 65% and a K+ of 3.7 mmol/L. Next you draw a sample from your old bowl system cell saver. The sample yields an Hct of 50% and a K+ of 2 mmol/L.

      At first glance it appears that the C.A.T.S system underperformed compared to the bowl system in eliminating K+. You must remember these are plasma measurements, so let’s do the math.

      In 100 ml of blood, the plasma component of the C.A.T.S system is 35%. Let’s take this and multiply by the K+ value: .35 x 3.7 mmol/L = 1.3 mmol
      Conversely, with the bowl system in 100 ml of blood, the plasma component is 50%, and so the same calculation would be: .50 x 2.0 mmol/L = 1.0 mmol.

      Now what is the actual K+ load being transfused to the patient? To find that value we must divide the amount of K+ in mg by the Hct of the end product.

      In the case of the C.A.T.S: 1.3 mmol / .65 = 2 mmol/L RBC.
      For the bowl system: 1 mmol / .50 = 2 mmol/L RBC.

      From this example you can see that the K+ load delivered to the patient is exactly the same.

      Another way to say it is that the higher Hct in the C.A.T.S system sample led to a serum concentration of K+ that was higher, however, the actual amount of K+ delivered per unit of RBC mass is the same.

1. This describes the Terumo Perfusion Clinical Support Team in the United States.