Blood tests show high lactate levels...which means....????

[SurvivingOnChocolate]

Hi, sorry to pick your brains, but had letter today to say recent blood tests for my 3 year old son show high lactate levels, which they want to retest in case it's an error. There is no info on what it means if it is found to be high again.

He was originally being seen for a Speech and Lang delay. We're just coming through months of various other assessments working towards a multi-discipline/ social communication meeting in July. Finding it the loneliest thing I've ever been through, and thought I was handling it better but these last few days have been teary as the last few appointments etc come through.

oh i hate getting blood results and then i google like mad and make myself worry, still do it now after nearly 7 years of being in/out hospital with my son, im a master of hormone blood levels now Can you ring the hospital tomorow and ask them what it means, i did google it but it mentions so many things about what it could be. I always hassle the hospital when i know i wont sleep for worry. Im not going to way dont worry because you will. Have they said when they want to repeat the test again?

I also googled for you. One thing I read was it was easy to get a false high level. Hopefully its just that. I would call the hospital and ask if someone can explain it to you. I hate the way they send you these results without an explaination.

Thank you both so much for replying. Rang the hospital but key people not there/ on hols this week - think I need to develop a thicker skin for pushing for answers! This is just all so new.

The googling I did do gave one suggestion it may be muscle related, which would make sense as paediatrician said she thought he had hypermobility in his legs. Finally seeing physio next week after months of fighting for an assessment, even though it was the Paed who referred him!! So hopefully will know more.

Bloods also said ferratin low so he needs to take iron, that at least we can do something about! Retest for lactate will be ASAP.

Thank you again for taking the time, it's all becoming a bit overwhelming as we get closer to maybe having a diagnosis.

morning surviving, glad you rang the hospital. Try again today if the worry is disrupting your head, even though the key people will not be there someone else will be able to explain to you what it means. You do just have to nag but it does come with practice and your confidence builds the more phone calls you will envitably end up making having to chase people up

Higher lactate levels can be a sign of anaemia, which would tie up with the low ferratin - so it could well be that he's just a bit anaemic - which as you said is easy to fix.

As rebl said, its easy to get a false high though, if the bloods are taken after exercise or even if the fist is clenched when the blood is taken or the tourniquet has been on a while (eg if they had trouble finding a vein).

If they said in the letter they want to retest in case its an error, they obviously aren't seeing anything else of concern in the results and as its common to get a false high, that could be all there is to it.

I hate it when they do this, I once had the GP's receptionist call me in to say I had to come in that afternoon to discuss my anomalous blood results face to face with a GP - she really scared me. Rushed in to see the GP in a panic, who said there was nothing significant in my results that he could see and he had not concerns.

hi
i came across this post whilst google-ing high lactate as my son also has the same. He was referred to a paediatrician aged 1 as he has very slow development, weak muscles and therefore struggling to crawl and learn to walk. It was found he has no muscle disorder but a blood test revealed high lactate. They also said it could have just been the stress of the blood test so they repeated it again and it was still high but he was also stressed again from the experience. He then had an mri of his brain and bloods were taken whilst he was asleep and his lactate level was even higher. We still havent had a proper explanation as to what this means but have had a letter for him to be investigated for a metabolic/cell disorder where his body isnt producing energy properly or a disorder along those lines. All his other tests have come back normal and we havent heard anything else for months so im asuming they dont have a clue about the high lactate levels. If you have a health visitor it might be a good idea to voice your concerns to her as i did that with mine and she phoned the hospital straight away to complain that i wasnt being kept informed of everything, but its been a month since then and i still havent heard anything. I can sympathise with you completely as it is a big worry and you feel that the doctors just simply dont have time to explain anything to you, they just send a letter expecting you to understand. We have had a multi-disiplinary assesement and they said its just learning difficulties but since the 3rd high lactate test they have sent him for more tests which have led nowhere, and it feels like were on a huge waiting list to find a proper diagnosis. We go to special needs groups once a week though they really help a lot! hope my story helps you slightly! good luck with everything! x

one possible cause of high lactate is fructose intolerance, eg see here
As a lot of processed foods contain corn-derived glucose/fructose syrup which humans are not able to process as effectively as good old sugar, this is often mentioned if you see a nutritionist.

Only just read these last posts- haven't been able to get online for quite a while, so thank you and sorry Littlemiss and nightcat, how rude to ignore you!

The retest was done last week, so we're still waiting to hear, but the Paed did chase up whether it was being organised or not which made me worry more! She said she didn't want to discuss the possible reasons until after the second test, so not to worry us, and that the other levels being fine was a good sign. They're doing another social communication meeting in Feb when he'll be four, and doing the ADOS test in the meantime. We've finally started physio too!

Littlemiss I hope things are going Ok for you and that they're being more open with the info- all the waiting definately makes it all much harder xxx

high lactate is common in mitochondrial dyfunction type autism....low muscle tone etc...Drs only just starting to look at mitochondria and autism....ds has mito dyfunction caused by vaccination