the value of lab findings in early diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia

objective: acute mesenteric ischemia (ima) is a vascular emergency with broad variability of clinical presentations and non-specific laboratory findings. therefore, there is a significant need for reliable serological markers of ischemia. various laboratory studies may be performed for suspected ami, but in general, such studies will not establish the diagnosis. methods: in a prospective, non-interventional study, from october 2012 to october 2013, we investigated 70 patients with probable diagnosis of ami. blood samples were taken from patients and analyzed for complete blood count (cbc), prothrombin time (pt), partial thromboplastin time (ptt), international normalized ratio (inr), urea, creatinine (cr), sodium (na), potassium (k), d-dimer, lactate, amylase, ph, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pco2), and bicarbonate (hco3). finally the results were compared with ami diagnosis confirmed by computed tomography (ct) angiography. results: seventy patients with acute severe abdominal pain were studied. thirty-nine patients (55.7%) were male and 31 patients (44.3%) were female. the average age was 68.01 ± 14.67 (±sd). based on ct-angiography results, 27 (38.6%) patients had ami and 43 (61.4%) patients did not have ami. chi-squire test showed p values of 0.606 and 0.986 for relations between sex and risk factors with ami correspondingly. one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov revealed white blood cell (wbc), hemoglobin (hb), platelets (plt), urea, cr, na, k, pco2 and hco3 as normally distributed parameters (p > 0.05). moreover pt, ptt, inr, d-dimer, lactate, amylase, and ph were non-normally distributed (p < 0.05). conclusion: we found a significant relation between increased serum lactate level and definitive ami diagnosis. we recommend rising serum lactate as a finding in ami.