Saturday July 28, 2007
Arterial and venous latate level

Arterial lactate level is preferable to venous lactate level but it is not always feasible to have arterial lactate level.To estimate accurate arterial level, following formula can be used

Arterial lactate in mmol/L = 0.889 (venous lactate in mmol/L) + 0.076

Please note this formula is in mmol/L. (In USA we use mg/dl). The unit conversion from mg to mmol is 1 mg/dl = 0.11 mmol/L.


Reference:

Lavery RF, Livingston DH, et al. The utility of venous lactate to triage injured patients in the trauma center. J Am Coll Surg. 2000; 190: 656-664.