Evaluation of the Correlation of Arterial and Venous Lactate and Glucose Concentrations in Anesthetized Critically Ill Dogs.

Venous lactate and glucose reliably reflect arterial values in critically ill dogs, supporting venous sampling in emergencies.

This prospective clinical study evaluated the correlation between arterial and venous lactate and glucose concentrations in 90 critically ill dogs undergoing emergency surgery at a university teaching hospital. Blood samples were collected from the dorsal pedal artery and jugular vein within 5 minutes of each other and analyzed using portable devices. Dogs with known diabetes mellitus were excluded. Based on arterial sampling, 38.9% of dogs were hyperlactatemic, 54.4% were hyperglycemic, and 10.0% were hypoglycemic. A very strong correlation was demonstrated between arterial and venous lactate (ρ = 0.850) and glucose (ρ = 0.970) concentrations. The correlation between arterial and venous lactate was very strong in hyperlactatemic dogs (ρ = 0.835) but only fair in normolactatemic dogs (ρ = 0.488). Venous lactate demonstrated a sensitivity of 81.8% and specificity of 88.6% for detecting arterial hyperlactatemia. Importantly, no significant correlation was found between arterial lactate and glucose concentrations (ρ = -0.057; p = 0.593), indicating that hyperlactatemia and hyperglycemia are independent findings in this population. These results support the use of venous blood sampling as a practical and reliable alternative to arterial sampling for assessing lactate and glucose in critically ill dogs, particularly in emergency settings where arterial access may be more challenging or risky.

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