Anion gap, anion gap corrected for albumin, and base deficit fail to accurately diagnose clinically significant hyperlactatemia in critically ill patients.

Anion gap, anion gap corrected for serum albumin, and base deficit are often used as surrogates for measuring serum lactate. None of these surrogates is postulated to predict hyperlactatemia in the critically ill. We prospectively collected data from September 2004 through August 2005 for 1381 consecutive admissions.

Pretransplant model to predict posttransplant survival in liver transplant patients.

Objective: To develop a prognostic model that determines patient survival outcomes after orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) using readily available pretransplant variables.

Summary Background Data: The current liver organ allocation system strongly favors organ distribution to critically ill recipients who exhibit poor survival outcomes following OLT. A severely limited organ resource, increasing waiting list deaths, and rising numbers of critically ill recipients mandate an organ allocation system that balances disease severity with survival outcomes.