Lactic Acidosis Induced by Manual Restraint for Health Evaluation and Comparison of Two Point-of-Care Analyzers in Healthy Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta caretta)
Abstract
Sea turtles are commonly manually restrained for veterinary evaluation in rescue, rehabilitation, research, and aquarium settings. Blood gas analytes and lactate are routinely evaluated during triage of sea turtles, and lactate clearance is of prognostic significance in cold-stunned individuals.1,2 While increases in blood lactate in sea turtles have been associated with muscle exertion, experimental forced submergence, trawl and pound net capture, and general anesthesia, changes in blood lactate associated with short periods of manual restraint have not been evaluated.3-10
Venous blood gases and lactate were measured in sixteen juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) before and after a 15 minute manual restraint (t0 and t15) for routine veterinary examination. Blood pH, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2), partial pressure of oxygen (pO2), bicarbonate (HCO3-), and lactate were measured at t0 and t15 with the i-STAT® point-of-care analyzer. Lactate was simultaneously measured with the Lactate Plus® analyzer.
Blood pH and HCO3- decreased significantly (p<0.0001), whereas pCO2 increased significantly (p<0.0001) after 15 minutes. Lactate increased significantly after 15 minutes on both analyzers (p<0.0001). Good agreement was found between analyzers, but bias increased with increasing lactate concentrations.
Both the i-STAT® and Lactate Plus® analyzers appear to be acceptable clinical tools for analysis of blood lactate in juvenile loggerhead sea turtles. Clinicians should evaluate blood gas values and lactate at the beginning of health evaluations and interpret serial lactate values in sea turtles with caution, as even short periods of manual restraint can considerably influence these values.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank R. Passingham and Rachel Ballard for technical support. We also thank the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Clinical Sciences for providing funding for this project through the Veterinary Practice Plan Grant.
*Presenting author
+Student presenter
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