Measurement of the blood lactate response to exercise is a common inclusion in the physiological assessment of high performance endurance athletes. The use and applicability of lactate measurements depends on accurate instrumentation whether in laboratory or field settings. The application of physiological testing and monitoring in field settings has increased particularly with the emergence of portable hand-held blood lactate analysers.

This article aims to evaluate the suitability of the Lactate Scout and the Lactate Plus analysers for the testing of athletes and assess their reliability and accuracy against the Lactate Pro as well as the accuracy of all three portable blood lactate analysers against a laboratory-based blood gas analyser.

This study showed that the Lactate Pro and Lactate Plus compared well to each other, displayed good reliability and accuracy when compared to a laboratory-based analyser. Although the Lactate Scourt also displayed relatively good reliability, the authors of this study consider that this device was not as reliable or accurate as the Lactate Pro or Lactate Plus.

The Lactate Pro is a Japanese analyser which has been discontinued for a few years. This analyser was replaced by an improved version called Lactate Pro 2, which requires 0,3 microliters of blood and takes 15 seconds to show the results.

The Lactate Plus is manufactured in the United States. It needs 0,3 microliters of blood and takes 13 seconds to show the results.

The Lactate Scout+ is a German analyser which needs 0,2 microliters of blood and takes 10 seconds to show the results.

The three analysers are for sale at Laktate.

This article was written by Rebecca K. Tanner, Kate L. Fuller and Megan L. R. Ross, and published in European Journal of Applied Physiology (2010) 109:551–559
Please click here to access the complete article:: Evaluation of three portable blood lactate analysers: Lactate Pro, Lactate Scout and Lactate Plus