Transcutaneous CO2 measurement is not a reliable alternative to arterial blood gas sampling in the acute medical setting

Measurement of the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood (pCO2) is essential in a variety of acute clinical settings and it is often necessary to monitor changes in pCO2 over time rather than just a one-off measurement. The current gold standard of measuring pCO2 is arterial blood gas (ABG) sampling, but the collection of arterial blood is invasive and associated with complications [1].Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Mummery reports grants from CLAHRC NWL , during the conduct of the study; and The SenTec TcCO2 monitor was leant to us by Resmed for the duration of the study.Conflict of interest: Dr. ROGERS has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Padmanaban reports other from Chiesi, outside the submitted work.Conflict of interest: Dr. Matthew has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Woodcock has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Bloch reports and The SenTec TcCO2 monitor was leant to us by Resmed for the duration of the study.