Simple Lactate Measurement in Horses Using a Portable Lactate Analyzer with Lancet Skin Punctures under Field Conditions

Abstract

The following items were investigated to measure blood lactate in horses under field conditions using portable lactate analyzers recently developed for human athletes. 1) The precision of two types of portable lactate analyzer and the standard analyzer using the immobilized enzyme method, and correlation among the lactate concentrations measured by the three lactate analyzers. 2) The correlation between the lactate concentrations in peripheral blood collected by lancet puncture and jugular venous blood using Lactate-pro (L-pro). The study was performed in Thoroughbreds under training for races, using Accusport (AC) and L-pro as portable lactate analyzers and YSI1500 (YSI) for the standard analyzer using the immobilized enzyme method. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CV) of L-pro was lower than AC at low and middle lactate concentrations. The precision of L-pro is better than AC when the blood lactate level is lower than 10 mmol/l, and hematocrit (Ht) is 57% or lower. The lactate concentration using L-pro in peripheral blood collected by lancet puncture through the neck skin was similar to the level in jugular venous blood. No infection or inflammatory symptom occurred after blood sampling and the examination is relatively safe. These findings suggest that blood lactate measurement using L-pro by lancet puncture through the neck skin under field conditions is simple and safe, requiring no blood sampling from the jugular vein, and it can be used for evaluation of aerobic capacity and intensity of exercise in daily submaximal training.