I would be interested in hearing from anybody that has been using the on line hematocrit devices. I am interested in knowing how effective they have proven to be in preventing hypotensive episodes.

The Hct Line can be very helpful in preventing and better controlling hypotension. It helps staff see that the patient is not tolerating the fluid removal and simple measures like good old T-berg can be used to prevent or correct the hypotension. It will also maximize the use of other supportive measures like NSS, HSS, Manitol, Decrease Dialysate temp or Na/UR modeling. It can help prevent pt admissions with CHF by helping the staff to get the pt's dry wt adjusted correctly. Also the newer sofware can be used for VA access measurements. Worth a demo in your unit!

Dear Sarah,

I work for In-Line Diagnostics, the company that makes the Crit-Line Monitor. I have a lot of information I can send you on Crit-Line and prevention of hypotensive episodes. I also have information on how Crit-Line can help prevent fluid overload, identify patients with sleep apnea and monitor accesses for recirculation and soon access blood flow. Please e-mail me your address and I will send you the information as soon as possible. I can also send you a list of Crit-Line user references if you like. Thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,
Dawn Peterson
In-Line Diagnostics

Dawn,

Sleep apnea?

How does an in-line hematocrit device determine if the patient is experiencing sleep apnea?

Dawn, please leave your work e-mail address with your next message. Thanks.

Tom,
Thank you for your reply. The Crit-Line monitor measures O2 saturation as well as Hct. Because the Crit-Line is on a patient for their whole dialysis treatment, one can see very easily (via the O2 saturation graph) if a patient's O2 saturation drops off when they fall asleep. The only thing is if the patient has a catheter, the Crit-Line will be reading mixed venous blood, and you would generally see much lower O2 saturations. The e-mail address I gave is the only one I have. If you are interested in looking at our website, it's at http://www.crit-line.com/

Oops! My e-mail address is dawndpeterson@worldnet.att.net

Well, I guess technically you could diagnose sleep apnea with it, but I feel you're stretching its practical applications a bit. I, for one, would be reluctant to make that diagnosis based on the facts that most dialysis patients don't dialyze at night and that it is likely that the physiological characteristics of a daytime nap on dialysis don't correlate with those of an 8-hour sleep cycle at night off dialysis.

I know, I know, your marketing guys and gals came up with that one. It's their job.

[This message has been edited by Tom (edited 05-26-99).]