What does this mean??? (A&e blood test result)

[thiswayorthatway1]

Hi medical people of mumsnet! Just wondered if someone could possibly explain.

I was in a&e the other day and they did a vein gas blood test (I think that was it?) They put it in a machine and it printed some results and the nurse holding it was like oh shit and went and rushed to show the doctor immediately

i was really unwell (hence why I was in a&e) but they told me on the blood test my lactate result was 9.5. everything seemed to move much quicker after that, there were other doctors and nurses with me and this result seemed to really stress them out

I’m better now thankfully, but just wondered if anyone could possibly explain what that means? They said should be under 1 but they didn’t explain if 9.5 was a little high or really high, or what it meant and I was too unwell to ask. Now that I’m better, I’m just curious what it meant? Does it mean inflammation or anaemia or something like that? Had a quick google but it keeps talking about anaerobic respiration and my GCSE biology days are too far behind me!

Thanks in advance!

Likely low oxygen or infection causing it to be so high.

Lactate this high could indicate sepsis, organ failure, including heart or liver, shock (caused by allergic reaction,severe injury and blood loss, poisoning...) or infections, like meningitis. It completely depends why you were in A&E and what other symptoms you had. Did nobody tell you what was wrong with you?

Blimey what were you in for?

Yourreading was critically high meaning your body isn’t getting enough oxygen to your tissues, 0. 5-2 is normal… 9.5 is off the scale have they not explained anything?

Would normally be sepsis, blood loss, shock, diabetes dehydration severe etc. liver failure and heart disease can cause it. But it’s shock and major traumas.

Are you home and safe now?

A lactate of 9.5 is very high, that’s why the nurses and doctors rushed, because normally it should be under about 2. High lactate means your body wasn’t getting enough oxygen at the tissue level, so it switched into ‘anaerobic mode’ and produced lactate as a by-product. It can happen in situations like sepsis (serious infection), severe dehydration, low blood pressure, or anything that affects oxygen delivery.

It doesn’t mean you have anaemia as such, but more that your body was under major stress at the time. The good news is you’re better now, so whatever caused it has improved. If you want more detail, you could ask your GP for a copy of your hospital notes so you know exactly what triggered it.

Bottom line: it was serious in the moment, but it was dealt with quickly, and that’s why you’re on the mend now.

not sure where I said otherwise in my post or where you’ve got that from, but of course I knew why I was in a&e and what they were treating. I have heart problems. It was just the lactate part that I was confused about (as I said in my post) because their reaction to that individual result suggested it meant something bad but I just didn’t know what lactate even was

no, they didn’t just send me home, again not sure where you’ve got that from? They sent me to coronary care for the night until the cardiologist saw me and I was stable again and back to my normal

Heart problems unfortunately.

thanks for explaining it! I just had no idea what it even meant, I knew why I was in a&e but I just kept hearing this lactate word being mentioned and had no idea what it was.

yep, home and back to my normal self now thank you very much! 🙂

This is what ChatGPT is for! As people have said infection, sepsis etc

thank you very much for explaining it, that makes so much sense now! When I googled it was talking about respiration and it was bringing me back to biology class at school which I was always rubbish at so I was completely baffled and couldn’t make sense of it lol. Thank you!

So glad to hear that, take care and make sure you can rest that must have been pretty scary! Just glad you were in a&e and being monitored.