POC-lactate: evaluation of strip and cassette versus routine results

Blood lactate is an indicator for metabolic acidosis and a marker for immediate intervention. Here we cross-compared two point-of-care (POC) lactate analysers with routine results: the StatStripLactate and the iSTAT-1 versus the ABL-735. We also performed precision analysis. We found good correlations between the three analysers and also the precision met the validation criteria, except for pO2 and pCO 2 measured with the iSTAT-1. Differences and bias were acceptable for clinical practice. The most up-to-date validation criteria were used and the pro’s and con’s of strip versus cassette analysers were evaluated.