Child Health 1 - Daisy

The Case

Daisy's Results

Different results will come back at different times and the most meaningful, the culture results, take the longest.


The first available results are those performed at the point of care such as the blood sugar, or near to the point of care, such as a blood gas.


Daisy’s blood gas is shown to the left.


You should always consider where the blood gas has been sampled from – arterial sampling in Paediatrics is rare outside of the ICU setting so pO2 results are often unhelpful.


Whilst we will concentrate on the pH, pCO2, HCO3 and BE on blood gases, in many cases they will also show Glucose, Sodium, Potassium, Hb and Lactate and these may be very important in both short and longer term management.

Further Results


Sodium           135         133-146

Potassium      4.8           3.5-5.7

Urea                2.2          1.0-5.5

Creatinine       20           10-60


CRP               22            0-3.6


Protein           70            60-80

Albumin          40           30-45

ALT                24            7-35

ALP                238         60-425


Hb                  110         95-135

WBC               21.3       7-18

Neutrophils     7.6

Lymphocytes  10.3

Plts                 421        150-400


There is a temptation to put a lot of emphasis on blood results but they often contribute very little to the actual diagnosis.


The elevated CRP and WCC are indicative of infection but do not tell you if the infection is bacterial or viral or which body system is affected.