Elevated Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase Values in Children with Multiorgan Involvements and Severe Febrile Illness

Background: Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is present in almost all body tissues, so the LDH test is used to detect tissue alterations and as an aid in the diagnosis of heart attack, anemia, and liver disease. It is also used as a marker for differentiating multiple organ involvements and excessive destruction of tissues from mild illness. Materials and Methods: LDH was measured by autoanalyser machine in serum samples of children who were eligible for this study at the time of admission. The t-test was used and differences between the means of the two groups' data were expressed as mean. The SPSS commercial statistical software package was used for data analysis. Ninety one cases (group 1) with fever and two or more than two organ involvements and 118 patients as group 0 with less than two organ involvement were studied. Results: Group 0 showed a mean LDH value of 563.12 U/L and group 1 showed a mean LDH value of 700.08 U/L. A total number of 209 children (103 females and 106 males) were studied. The mean LDH value was 639.93 U/L in females and 606.06 U/L in males. One hundred sixty-six patients had an infectious disease. Their mean LDH was 615.90 U/L. Forty three patients had other uncomplicated non-infectious diseases. The mean LDH was 649.21 U/L in them. Differences of mean LDH between the two groups were statistically significant (p-value=0.001). Conclusion: We can conclude that LDH measurement may be useful to identify patients who have severe diseases with excessive destruction of tissues