This prospective observational study was conducted in the department of anesthesia and intensive care medicine of an indian medical college. The aims of this study were to evaluate the use of lactate measurements for earlier detection of occult shock, to predict mortality and to evaluate their use as a prognostic implication for ICU patients.

This study was written by Mohamad Ommid, Amina Khatoom, Sheikh Ishaq, Reyaz Lone, Saba Ahad, Abraq Asma and Shahina Parveen, and it was published in 2017 by Annals of Advance Medical Sciences ( DOI: 10.21276/AAMS.1743).

Many variables measured in critically ill patients have been used to estimate severity of disease, prognosticate morbidity and mortality, evaluate costs of treatment and indicate specific treatment and monitor the adequacy of treatment and its timing. It is unlikely that one measurement can replace all of these, but lactate levels may come close.

Lactic acid levels have become a useful marker for tissue hypoperfusion and may also serve as an endpoint for resuscitation in patients with sepsis and septic shock.

A total of 200 patients admitted to ICU with critical illness were randomly selected for the study group.

After studying the results of this study, the authors concluded that elevated lactate levels can be found at a multitude of clinical presentations and hyperlactatemia is associated with in-hospital mortality in a heterogeneous ICU population. High lactate levels predicted in hospital mortality, and normalization of lactate within 6 hours is associated with lower mortality.

Lactate level is an easily measured laboratory parameter which can provide useful information for the bedside clinician. Therefore, blood lactate levels are a good predictor of prognosis in critically ill patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

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