Working reference material for the measurements of blood gases with property which responded to the electrode as well as the whole blood has been established. This reference material is prepared by dispersing bovine hemoglobin homogeneously in buffered solution, and adjusting ionic strength, bicarbonate, ion concentration, base excess and total hemoglobin concentration to those of human whole blood. To give similar oxygen affinity to human whole blood, a preservative is added. The reference material is sealed in glass ampoules and frozen to be stored. The values assigned to this reference material are obtained by the IFCC reference method using a capillary type glass electrode for pH, and using standard tonometry system for pCO2 and pO2.
The conformity of this reference material to whole blood in electrode responses make it possible for clinical laboratories to evaluate the trueness of their blood gas analyzers for pH, pCO2 and pO2. In addition, timeconsuming tonometry is unnecessary in the use of this reference material, and so the evaluation of accuracy in clinical laboratofies can be carried out with ease. Thus the traceability for pH, pCO2 and pO2 will be established with this working reference material.
