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Observational Analysis of Point-of-Care Lactate Plus™ Meter in Preclinical Trauma Models
Catharina Gaeth1, Jamila Duarte1, Alvaro Rodriguez1
1Combat Wound Care, United States Army Institute of Surgical Research, 3698 Chambers Pass, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Houston, TX 78234, USA.
Background/Objectives:
Blood lactate concentration is often used to assess systemic hypoperfusion, tissue hypoxia, and sepsis in trauma patients and serves as a prognostic indicator and marker of response to therapy. Point-of-care (POC) devices provide rapid lactate measurements with a single drop of blood. In this study, lactate values from whole blood, measured with two POC devices, Abbott i-STAT® and the Nova Biomedical Lactate (LA) Plus™ meter, are compared.
Methods:
An observational analysis of 760 blood samples from four preclinical trauma animal models was performed. Lactate was measured simultaneously with two POC devices (i-STAT® and the Lactate Plus™ meter). The evaluation in the form of a Bland-Altman diagram showed the agreement of the tests.
Results:
The Spearman correlation was 0.9180 (95% CI 0.9056 to 0.9288) for i-STAT® vs. the LA Plus™ meter. Both tests showed a significant increase in lactate after injury (p < 0.05). The i-STAT® showed a small bias compared to the LA Plus™ meter (-0.0227 ± 0.4542 with 95% limits of agreement from -0.09129 to 0.8675). The LA Plus™ meter showed slightly higher values overall (0.0227 mmol/L), but the i-STAT® showed higher results at lactate levels above 2.5 mmol/L.
Conclusions:
The observed similarity in performance between the two devices suggests that both are capable of reliably measuring lactate levels in a trauma situation. The LA Plus™ meter provides fast results with only one drop of blood. This study supports the prehospital use of POC devices.
