Quantitative Assessment of Blood Lactate in Shock: Measure of Hypoxia or Beneficial Energy Source

Figure 3

Summary of measurements of lactate turnover versus blood lactate in humans. The black points represent normal controls, without (circles or triangles) or with lactate infusion (squares or stars) to increase the blood concentration. The lactate turnover was measured using either the tracer (triangle, circle, and square) or unlabeled bolus (star) method. The data from Holroyde et al. (triangles) are individual subjects while all the other points represent the averaged reported results. The red and yellow points are for septic and cardiogenic shock, respectively, measured using either the tracer (circles) or unlabeled bolus (stars) method. The green points are for various levels of exercise. The dashed line shows the predicted relationship if the clearance has a constant value of 1.5 L/min/70 kg. Points above the line have a greater than normal clearance, and points below the line a less than normal clearance. See the main text for references.