Lactate clearance prognosticates outcome in pediatric septic shock during first 24 h of intensive care unit admission

< 0.001), respectively. Approximately there was a 24% decrease in likelihood of mortality for each 10% increase in lactate clearance at 24 h. At a threshold value of 10% 6-h lactate clearance had a sensitivity of 0.948 and specificity of 0.571, while at a threshold of 20% 24-h lactate clearance had a sensitivity of 0.922 and specificity of 0.629. The comparison of clearance at 6 and 24 h using receiver operating characteristic showed that former was "fair" (area under the curve = 0.753) and later was "good" (area under the curve = 0.81) in predicting mortality in pediatric septic shock. CONCLUSION: We concluded that optimal lactate clearance in pediatric septic shock both during the early presentation and after the initial "golden hours" is associated with lower in-hospital and 60-day mortality. Further, 24-h lactate clearance appears superior to 6 h lactate clearance in predicting mortality in such patients.