Blood lactate concentration
Before and directly after each intervention, capillary blood was taken by pricking the earlobe with a safety lancet. The sample was applied directly (maximal 30 s after intervention) to a test strip to determine lactate concentration (mmol/l) by means of a portable, hand-held unit (Lactate Scout, SensLab GmbH, Leipzig, Germany). The unit proves to be a reliable lactate measurement system with an inter-rater reliability with a correlation coefficient of 