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We switched to H+ and SI units in October 1998 after receiving a unilateral letter from our ITU saying they were going to change "from next Monday" (this was the prior Thursday!). After hurried consultation with the physicians we switched. Later we discovered that the ITU only changed to SI units for gases! We adopted the admirable booklet prepared by the West of Scotland Consultants and Top Grade Clinical Biochemists Committee, with permission, to distribute to all users and did the same as yourself sending out laminated conversion charts to help the change. The fly in the ointment continues to be those teaching hospitals who still use pH - we receive House Officers and Med students from 2 east midlands centres which causes consternation for a while after they arrive here. There is obviously a great inertia to making this change, which I suspect is aided and abetted by the very large number of POCT gas analysers. Perhaps the WEQAS organisers can tell us the numbers in each camp ? What is the situation in London James (Hooper) ? Philip Hyde Pilgrim Hospital Boston -----Original Message----- From: Frank Wells [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 04 June 2003 21:17 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Hydrogen ion In 1998, following the Annals article by Hooper, Marshall and Miller (Log-jam in acid base education and investigation: why make it so difficult?, Ann Clin Biochem 1998 35 85-93) I set up a series of meetings with our respiratory physician and a lead ITU consultant and we changed from reporting pH to hydrogen ion. Educational material, including sample cases, was placed on the Intranet, together with an explanation of the reasons for the change. Every ward was supplied with a laminated acid base diagram, with some additional basic information on utilisation of hydrogen ion. It all went a lot more smoothly than I feared, and I have had occasional questions from junior staff but no significant problems. I made the change partly because I believed in it (even I could work out what was going on with most of our gas results!) and partly because, in the West Midland Region, following a meeting at which Dr Hooper spoke, there seemed to be a broad support for the change. Recently, I have had a chest physician asking me to change back, saying that most guidelines use pH and almost all other hospitals do, and we are out of step. Could I ask what others are doing? I realise that the users of the mailbase may not be entirely representative, but I would very much like to know the state of play at present. Frank Wells ------ACB discussion List Information-------- This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical community working in clinical biochemistry. Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and they are responsible for all message content. ACB Web Site http://www.acb.org.uk List Archives http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html List Instructions (How to leave etc.) http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ ------ACB discussion List Information-------- This is an open discussion list for the academic and clinical community working in clinical biochemistry. Please note, archived messages are public and can be viewed via the internet. Views expressed are those of the individual and they are responsible for all message content. ACB Web Site http://www.acb.org.uk List Archives http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ACB-CLIN-CHEM-GEN.html List Instructions (How to leave etc.) http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/