A simple test for urinary lactic acid.

A new simple rapid test for the detection of increased urinary lactic is described. The method depends on the transformation of lactic acid to acetaldehyde by cesium IV. Acetaldehyde reacts with sodium nitroprusside prducing a blue color. Patients from an emergency ward and patients with experimentally induced hyperlactatemia have been screened with this test. The results confirm that there exists a correlation between blood and urinary lactate levels and that a clinically relevant hyperlactemia is associated with an increased urinary lactate concentration which can be reliably detected with this test.