Validation of Two Novel Hand-held Lactate Monitors in Horses

Aims: Increased blood L-lactate concentration is commonly associated with disease severity and mortality in equine adults and neonates. The ISTAT1 portable blood gas analyser has been validated for measuring lactate concentration in equine blood. A modified version of the ISTAT (EPOC)2, and a small lactate-only device (EDGE)3, have not been validated in horses previously. The aim of this study was to validate these devices using samples from adult colic cases and critical care cases. 

Methods: Heparinised blood samples were collected from horses exhibiting clinical signs of abdominal disease (n = 35) or other illnesses (n = 20) necessitating critical care. Samples were tested within 5 min of collection and were separated into aliquots for simultaneous analysis with the EPOC, EDGE and ISTAT (gold standard). Intra- assay precision of EPOC and EDGE was assessed by duplicate analysis of the first 25 samples. [...]