Determination of physiological lactate and pH by Raman spectroscopy.

Lactate and pH values in human blood are important physiological parameters that can reflect serious pathological states as sepsis or hypoxia. In this study we demonstrate that we can determine lactate and pH values from blood samples by Raman spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis at medically relevant resolution and reliability. The method prepares the base for new real-time in vivo analytics for a number of pathological cases and physiological control in competitive sports. We demonstrate the capability to resolve pH variations of 0.04 and lactate concentrations of 0.20 mM ex vivo.