Question

The following are serum data sets for three patients. All are expressed as mEg/L. Which of these data sets would most likely be associated with high serum lactate? Explain your rationale.

	Sodium	Potassium	Chloride	Bicarbonate
Patient 1	145	5.0	120	22
Patient 2	140	4.0	116	19
Patient 3	145	4.0	100	5

Answer 1

Patient 1 has high serum lactate as compared to patient 2 and patient 3. Because as we know that generally, the range of sodium in human beings is 134-145 mEg/L and patient 1 has maximum sodium. Similarly, potassium range is 3.5-4.9 mEg/L which reveals that patient 1 has maximum potassium content. And also chloride range is 98-115mEg/L and we can see that patient 1 and patient 2 has chloride more than normal value but patient 1 has much more value and finally, bicarbonate range is 17-28mEg/L which is very less in patient 3 but more in patient 1 as compared to other.