Arterial Blood Gas

Physicians, pulmonologists, critical care physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, surgeons, and neonatologists are among the healthcare professionals who will typically request an arterial blood gas test.

The request forms to conduct an arterial blood gas test are commonly used when the patient is in respiratory distress when one is monitoring the severity of a patient??s respiratory condition, and when one needs to check the effectiveness of a medication for the patient??s condition. For more situations, refer to the ??When Would You Use this Test?? section above.

Collecting the blood sample takes a few minutes. However, processing it, analyzing the results, and formulating an interpretation can take a few hours, depending on the physician in charge of the procedure.