Evaluation of the lactate pro portable blood lactate analyser involving multiple-tester approach

Abstract

An investigation was done to determine the acceptability of the Lactate Pro LT -1710( blood lactate analyser while using a multiple-tester approach by assessing its accuracy, consistency, reliability and validity by comparing it to the YSI 2300 STAT PlusTM as the reference blood lactate analyser. The study was conducted in three phases separated seven days apart. The participants (n=9) completed the Bruce protocol on the motorised treadmill in the phase 1 and 2 and an all-out 30 s sprint on the non-motorised treadmill in the third phase. Pre and post-exercise capillary blood samples were collected from the finger-tip of the participants. Blood lactate data for all the three test days were pooled to determine the overall comparative agreement between the two analysers over a range of blood lactate values 0-16.2 mmol.L-1). A significant and high correlation was obtained for the combined pooled data (r=0.994, p<0.05). The ratio limits of agreement for pooled pre-exercise, pooled post-exercise and combined data were 00400.91, 0.61-0.84 and 0.53-0.90 respectively indicating the consistency of the blood lactate analysis by the Lactate Pro 1710(r) over a range (1-16.2 mmol.L-1) of blood lactate values. This study found the Lactate Pro 1710 blood lactate analyser to be acceptably accurate, consistent, reliable and valid to be used under varied exercise and training situations, especially when multiple testers are likely to be involved in the analysis.