Rapid and reliable measurement of highly elevated blood ammonia concentrations in children

Summary: Newborns and children may suffer from extremely high ammonia levels in their blood. We evaluated a fast, reliable micromethod, based on the Blood Ammonia Checker II (BAG II) in combination with the dilution with fresh whole blood. Comparison of the proposed method with an enzymatic method revealed a statistically significant correlation. We conclude that the dilution of patient's blood with fresh whole blood extends the measuring range of ammonia on the BAC II analyzer from 286 umol/l to about 700 umol/l.