TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring D-lactate as a biomarker for acute intestinal necrosis in 2958 patients: a prospective cross-sectional study
AU - Straarup, David
AU - Gotschalck, Kåre A.
AU - Christensen, Peter A.
AU - Rasmussen, Rikke W.
AU - Krarup, Henrik
AU - Lundbye-Christensen, Søren
AU - Handberg, Aase
AU - Thorlacius-Ussing, Ole
PY - 2024/1/19
Y1 - 2024/1/19
N2 - Background: Timely diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis (AIN) is lifesaving, but challenging due to unclear clinical presentation. D-lactate has been proposed as an AIN biomarker.Objectives: We aimed to test the diagnostic performance in a clinical setting.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional prospective study, including all adult patients with acute referral to a single tertiary gastrointestinal surgical department during 2015-2016 and supplemented by enrollment of high-risk in-hospital patients suspected of having AIN during 2016-2019. AIN was verified intraoperatively, and D-lactate was analyzed using an automatic spectrophotometric set-up. A D-lactate cut-off for AIN was estimated using the receiver operating characteristic curve. The performance according to patient subgroups was estimated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Given the exploratory nature of this study, a formal power calculation was not feasible.Results: Forty-four AIN patients and 2914 controls were enrolled. The D-lactate cut-off was found to be 0.0925 mM. Due to lipemic interference, D-lactate could not be quantified in half of the patients, leaving 23 AIN patients and 1456 controls for analysis. The AUC for the diagnosis of AIN by D-lactate was 0.588 (95% confidence interval 0.475-0.712), with a sensitivity of 0.261 and specificity of 0.892. Analysis of high-risk patients showed similar results (AUC 0.579; 95% confidence interval 0.422-0.736).Conclusion: D-lactate showed low sensitivity for AIN in both average-risk and high-risk patients. Moreover, lipemic interference precluded valid spectrophotometric assessment of D-lactate in half of the patients, further disqualifying the clinical utility of D-lactate as a diagnostic marker for AIN.
AB - Background: Timely diagnosis of acute intestinal necrosis (AIN) is lifesaving, but challenging due to unclear clinical presentation. D-lactate has been proposed as an AIN biomarker.Objectives: We aimed to test the diagnostic performance in a clinical setting.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional prospective study, including all adult patients with acute referral to a single tertiary gastrointestinal surgical department during 2015-2016 and supplemented by enrollment of high-risk in-hospital patients suspected of having AIN during 2016-2019. AIN was verified intraoperatively, and D-lactate was analyzed using an automatic spectrophotometric set-up. A D-lactate cut-off for AIN was estimated using the receiver operating characteristic curve. The performance according to patient subgroups was estimated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Given the exploratory nature of this study, a formal power calculation was not feasible.Results: Forty-four AIN patients and 2914 controls were enrolled. The D-lactate cut-off was found to be 0.0925 mM. Due to lipemic interference, D-lactate could not be quantified in half of the patients, leaving 23 AIN patients and 1456 controls for analysis. The AUC for the diagnosis of AIN by D-lactate was 0.588 (95% confidence interval 0.475-0.712), with a sensitivity of 0.261 and specificity of 0.892. Analysis of high-risk patients showed similar results (AUC 0.579; 95% confidence interval 0.422-0.736).Conclusion: D-lactate showed low sensitivity for AIN in both average-risk and high-risk patients. Moreover, lipemic interference precluded valid spectrophotometric assessment of D-lactate in half of the patients, further disqualifying the clinical utility of D-lactate as a diagnostic marker for AIN.
KW - D-lactate
KW - Mesenterial ischemia
KW - diagnosis
KW - lipemic interference
KW - D-lactate
KW - diagnosis
KW - lipemic interference
KW - mesenteric ischemia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189083498&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jemermed.2024.01.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jemermed.2024.01.001
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0736-4679
JO - The Journal of Emergency Medicine
JF - The Journal of Emergency Medicine
ER -