Sean Smarick, VMD, DACVECC, director of collaboration for Compassion-First Pet Hospitals, hospital director for Allegheny Veterinary Emergency Trauma & Specialty hospital, explains the importance of lactate as a downstream parameter.
Sean Smarick, VMD, DACVECC, director of collaboration for Compassion-First Pet Hospitals, hospital director for Allegheny Veterinary Emergency Trauma & Specialty hospital, explains the importance of lactate as a downstream parameter.
While upstream parameters—such as mucus membrane color, heart rate, and blood pressure—are used to measure whether cells have gotten enough oxygen, downstream parameters—such as lactate—are used to measure whether the oxygen the cells received was enough to produce enough energy.