Review of Methods for Measuring Lactate Concentration in Human Blood: Evolution, Modern Technologies, and Development Prospects

This article provides an overview of the evolution, current technologies, and future trends for the development of methods for measuring lactate concentration in human blood. Lactate, as a key metabolite of carbohydrate metabolism, serves as an important biomarker for the diagnosis of hypoxia, assessment of effectiveness of therapy in intensive care, and analysis of metabolic responses to physical activity in sports medicine. The historical progression of methods – from titrimetric and colorimetric approaches to enzymatic and electrochemical technologies – is analyzed in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on enzymatic methods using lactate dehydrogenase and lactate oxidase, which laid the foundation for modern portable point-of-care analyzers. The paper examines the operational principles, advantages and limitations of chemical, enzymatic, electrochemical and microfluidic systems, including lab-on-a-chip devices and wearable sensors for continuous real-time monitoring. It has been shown that the development of point-of-care and microfluidic technologies has transformed lactatometry from a laboratory-based procedure into an integrated component of intelligent and personalized metabolic monitoring systems. It was noted that the key research directions include the standardization of analytical procedures, improvement of measurement reproducibility, the development of non-invasive and multiplex sensors, and the application of artificial intelligence algorithms for data interpretation and predictive modeling. The results of the review highlight the growing role of lactate measurement in both clinical diagnostics and elite sports performance monitoring.

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