Arterial vs venous lactate: Correlation and predictive value of mortality of patients with sepsis during early resuscitation phase

To compare the lactate concentrations obtained from venous to those obtained from arterial blood in predicting hospital mortality of patients with sepsis and septic shock. To also assess lactate clearance as predictor for mortality. 100 patients with septic shock were prospectively enrolled. Serum was sampled at baseline and after 6 h of resuscitation from arterial and venous lines. Demographic, severity indices, hemodynamic measures as well as lactate clearance levels were noted. Data were analyzed for bias and precision. There was correlation between venous and arterial lactate concentrations at the baseline (R = 0.68) and at the 6-hour time point (R = 0.95). Venous concentrations were consistently higher than those obtained from an arterial access by 0.684 mg/dL. Further, arterial lactate level > 3.2 mmol/L and clearance of 3.2 mmol/L and clearance of