Using Blood Lactate Level to Assess CCU Patients

Blood lactate levels can predict short-term prognosis in patients who have had primary percutaneous coronary interventions after an acute myocardial infarction.

In research to be presented April 2 at the American College of Cardiology 65th Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago, IL, Hirohide Matsuura and colleagues from Myazaki Medical Association Hospital Cardiovascular Center, Miyazaki, Japan, reported on these levels in coronary care unit patients.

Hyperlactatemia has been known as a simple marker of poor prognosis in various acutely ill patient, they wrote. The team set out to see what happened to those levels, hemodynamic parameters and short-term mortality in patients who had had a primary percutaneous coronary intervention after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

They followed 374 such patients in their hospital, dividing them according to lactate levels after PCI.

They found the higher the lactate level while they were in the coronary care unit, the higher their in-hospital mortality.

"One-point measurement of blood lactate level after PCI might be beneficial as a short-term prognostic predictor in AMI," they concluded.