Lactate measurements in critically ill patients with a hand-held analyser.
OBJECTIVE
To compare a recently introduced hand-held lactate analyser to a reference point of care analyser (POCI) and the hospital laboratory in a critical care setting.


METHODS
10-bed surgical/medical intensive care unit in a teaching hospital.


METHODS
In 39 critically ill patients, 50 convenience measurement cycles consisting of three paired measurements at 30-min intervals were carried out with a hand-held analyser, reference POCI and hospital laboratory using arterial blood samples. Duplicate measurements with the hand-held analyser were done in 129 blood samples.


RESULTS
Lactate levels ranged from 1.1 to 21.0 mmol/l. Regression analysis of the hand-held analyser and laboratory showed a slope of 1.01, bias of -0.38 mmol/l, R(2) = 0.97 and mean error of 14.9 %. Reference POCI versus laboratory: slope = 1.07, bias = -0.29 mmol/l, R(2) = 0.98 and mean error of 6.4 %. Hand-held analyser versus reference POCI: slope = 0.90, bias = 0.09 mmol/l and R(2) = 0. 92. The hand-held analyser showed acceptable precision.


CONCLUSIONS
The hand-held lactate analyser can reliably measure arterial blood lactate levels in critically ill patients.
Brinkert
W
W
ZcA Lukas Hospital, Department of Intensive Care, P. O. Box 9014, 7300 DS Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. acutgen@wxs.nl
Rommes
J H
JH
Bakker
J
J
D001158:Arteries; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016638:Critical Illness; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D016014:Linear Models; D010783:Photometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011934:Reagent Strips; D013997:Time Factors
D011934:Reagent Strips; D019344:Lactic Acid