First postnatal lactate blood levels on day 1 and outcome of preterm infants with gestational age <29 weeks

Abstract

Background: Serum lactate levels are used as biomarkers for perinatal asphyxia, while their value for outcome prediction in preterm infants is uncertain. It was the aim of this observational study to determine the association of the first postnatal serum-lactate levels on day 1 of life and short-term outcome in preterm infants less than 29 gestational weeks.

Methods: We analysed data in a population-based cohort of German Neonatal Network (GNN) preterm infants with available first postnatal lactate levels enrolled at 22-28 weeks of gestational age (GA) between 1st of April 2009 and 31st December 2020. We hypothesized that high lactate levels as measured in mmol/L increase the risk of intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in infants with VLBW regardless of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) status. Hypotheses were evaluated in univariate analyses and multiple logistic regression models.

Results: First postnatal lactate levels were available in 2499 infants. The study population had a median GA of 26.7 [IQR 25.2-27.9] weeks and birth weight of 840 g [IQR 665-995]. Infants with short-term complications such as IVH and BPD had higher initial lactate levels than non-affected infants. The positive predictive value of a lactate cut-off of 4 mmol/L was 0.28 for IVH and 0.30 for BPD. After adjustment for known confounding variables, each 1 mmol/L increase of day 1 lactate levels was associated with a modestly increased risk of IVH (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.03-1.37; p = 0.002) and BPD (OR 1.23; 95% CI 1.06-1.43; p = 0.005) but not with sepsis or mortality. Notably, SGA was associated with lower risk of any grade and severe IVH (OR 0.70; 95% CI 0.54-0.85; p = 0.001).

Conclusions: In our observational cohort study higher initial lactate levels were associated with adverse outcome regardless of SGA status. However, the predictive value of lactate cut-off levels such as 4 mmol/L is low.

Keywords: all-cause mortality; bronchopulmonary dysplasia; extremely preterm infants; intraventricular haemorrhage; lactate levels; small for gestational age.

Figure 1

Lactate levels in preterm infants born SGA vs. preterm infants not being SGA stratified to gestational age (GA) subgroups. The figure shows median first postnatal serum lactate levels in mmol/L and interquartile ranges (IQRs) as error bars. P-values were derived from Mann-Whitney U-test. Only p-values, that reached a significant level (<0.05) are displayed. N (total) = 2,499 infants. SGA, small for gestational age.