Data Sheet 1_Point-of-care lactate in pediatric sepsis: a single-center observational study.docx

Elevated POC lactate levels were observed in 38.9% of tested patients. Elevated POC lactate was significantly associated with PICU admission, as well as the need for mechanical ventilation and inotropic support. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated modest but statistically significant predictive performance for PICU admission (AUC = 0.641), whereas no predictive value was observed for mortality (AUC = 0.544).</p>Conclusions<p>Point-of-care lactate may serve as a practical supplementary biomarker that can facilitate early risk stratification by identifying children with sepsis at increased risk of PICU admission and requiring advanced interventions.

Nevertheless, its modest discriminatory performance necessitates interpretation in conjunction with clinical assessment and additional biomarkers rather than as an independent predictor of sepsis severity.</p>