A prospective observational cohort study was undertaken at an urban level 1 trauma center. Baseline vital signs, point-of-care BE, AG, and serum lactate were recorded in all patients who presented for trauma. Correlation was determined by linear regression model. Overall test characteristics and relative risk were calculated.
One hundred patients were enrolled. The median age was 30 years (interquartile range, 24-42 years), and 89% were male. Fifty-three percent of injuries were blunt trauma. Pearson correlation of serum lactate to BE was − 0.81 (r2 = 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53-0.75; P < .001), that of BE to AG was − 0.71 (r2 = 0.5; 95% CI, − 0.80 to − 0.57; P < .01), and that for serum lactate to AG was 0.71 (r2 = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.57-0.80; P < .01).
This study demonstrates that the biomarkers have similar test characteristics which may make them interchangeable as indicators for the presence of occult shock in patients with trauma. Lactate and BE correlate well with each other; however, AG was not as strongly correlated with either.