Nagaraja V. T.1 , Arya Ayyappan2
BACKGROUND Community acquired pneumonia is a common and potentially serious illness throughout the world. Although diagnosis is often clinical, it can be confirmed by radiology and sputum analysis. An easily available prognostic marker is of high relevance. Various studies suggest that serum lactate can be used as a marker to assess the severity of disease instead of tedious scores like CURB-65 and PSI. we wanted to study the correlation between serum lactate level and CURB-65 score in predicting the prognosis of CAP. METHODS This is a cross-sectional observational study conducted among 100 patients admitted with CAP. A thorough history taking and clinical examination was conducted in patients admitted with symptoms of CAP. Admission CURB-65 score obtained. Serum lactate levels at 0, 12th , 24th and 48th hour were recorded. The clinical course, relevant investigations, complications and outcome of each cases has been studied. The correlation between serum lactate and CURB-65 score was obtained. RESULTS The mean serum lactate was 4.68 with a standard deviation of 2.65. Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation of serum lactate with CURB-65 score and PSI. The mean lactate levels in 27 non-survivors was 7.85 which was associated with a high CURB-65 score, which demonstrates its strong mortality predictive value. CONCLUSIONS Serum lactate which can be obtained as a part of routine blood gas analysis can be considered as a simple, cheap and easily available prognostic marker in community acquired pneumonia.
