Unmeasured anions and mortality in critically ill patients in 2016

The presence of acid-base disturbances, especially metabolic acidosis may negatively affect the outcome of critically ill patients. Lactic acidosis is the most frequent etiology and has largest impact on the prognosis. Since lactate measurement might not have always been available at bedside, it had been regarded as one of the unmeasured anions. Therefore, anion gap and strong ion gap has been used to as a surrogate of lactate concentration. From this perspective, the relationship between either anion gap or strong ion gap and mortality has been explored. Then, lactate became routinely measurable at bedside and the direct comparison between directly measured lactate and these surrogate parameters can be possible. Currently available evidence suggests that directly measured lactate has larger prognostic ability for mortality than albumin-corrected anion gap and strong ion gap without lactate. In this commentary, the rationale and possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed.