Ethylene glycol poisoning can interfere with the point of care assay for blood lactate.
Assays for lactate may use either lactate oxidase or LDH.
Glycolate and glyoxylate may be metabolized by lactate oxidase, resulting in a markedly abnormal reading.
The bacterial source of the lactate oxidase affects the interference. Interference is more common with oxidase derived from Pediococcus.
Detection:
(1) markedly elevated blood lactate on a point of care analyzer
(2) failure to confirm when measured by an alternative method
(3) clinical suspicion of ethylene glycol poisoning
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Specialty: Clinical Laboratory, Emergency Medicine
