BACKGROUND The lactate concentration should be used to examine the severity of sepsis or any state of shock. This study was conducted to investigate the prognostic power of the lactate clearance, as adjusted for time, between the survivors and nonsurvivors of patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. METHODS The study was performed on 67 patients over 16 years old and who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with severe sepsis or septic shock. They were divided into the survivors (n = 37) and nonsurvivors (n = 30). The blood lactate concentrations were assayed at intervals ranging from 8 to 24 hours and the APACHE III scoring was done daily for 2 weeks or until discharge or death. The lactate clearance, as adjusted for time, was defined using the following formula: [(the maximal lactate concentration - the normal lactate concentration)/the time to normalize the lactate concentration] x 1,000. RESULTS There were no significant differences of age, gender and the length of the ICU stay between the survivors and non-survivors. There were significant difference of the time to measuring the maximal serum lactate concentration (3.2 +/- 12.3 hours vs. 28.8 +/- 64.6 hours, respectively; p = 0.037), the lactate clearance, as adjusted for time (132.27 +/- 112.88 mol/L . hour vs. 59.67 +/- 72.60 mol/L .
hour, respectively; p = 0.002), the lactate clearance during 24 hours (46.0 +/- 26.3% vs. 22.6 +/- 45.6%, respectively; p = 0.018) and the APACHE III score (67.6 +/- 22.7 vs. 83.9 +/- 21.6, respectively; p = 0.005) between the survivors and non-survivors. The lactate clearance, as adjusted for time and the APACHE III score were the predictive factors for survival on the logistic regression analysis (odd ratio 0.987; p = 0.028 vs. odd ratio 1.046; p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS Lactate clearance, as adjusted for time, could be used as a prognostic index, as well as the APACHE III score, for patients with severe sepsis or septic shock.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Lactate Clearance and Outcome in Septic Shock Patients with Low Level of Initial Lactate Yun Su Sim, Cho Rom Hahm, So Yeon Lim, Gee Young Suh, Kyeongman Jeon The Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine.2011; 26(2): 78. CrossRef
Introduction: Lactic acid in circulating blood should provide an index between balance of oxygen consumption and metabolic rate in sepsis or any state of shock. The purpose of the study was to determine the prognostic power of the lactate, the time factor of the blood lactate levels between survivors and non-survivors and the correlation between APACHE III score and blood lactate level in SIRS patients. METHOD The study was performed on 99 patients over 16 years old who were admitted to the SICU with the criteria of SIRS.
The blood lactate concentrations were assayed with arterial blood drawn in intervals ranging from 4 to 24 hours and the APACHE III scoring was done in the first 24 hours of SICU admission and daily until discharge or death for 2 weeks.
The highest lactate level of the day was recorded. They were divided into two groups, survivors (n=61) and non-survivors (n=38), according to the outcome. RESULT There were significant difference of the first day (D1) as well as peak lactate level between the survivors and the non-survivors (3.02 3.05 vs 7.41 4.78, 3.24 2.70 vs 7.82 4.88 mmol/L). Significant difference of the lactate as well as APACHE III were identified between the survivors and the non-survivors during a 14-days of observation period.
Significant correlations were shown between lactate and APACHE III while the study was being conducted. The peak lactate presented superior to the D1 lactate in mortality prediction. CONCLUSION Blood lactate concentration could be used as a prognostic index as well as APACHE III score. Serial blood lactate concentration assays are necessary to predict the outcome.