Poisoning by drugs and non-medicinal chemicals can cause a variety of disturbances to acid-base homeostasis, so that the initial emergency room (ER) assessment of poisoned patients often includes arterial blood gas analysis. This recently published clinical study of acid-base disturbances in poisoned patients was...

Blood gas analysis, which involves measurement of three parameters: blood pH, pCO₂ and pO₂, is almost unique among routine blood tests in its requirement for arterial blood. All other blood tests are performed on venous blood or occasionally, capillary blood. Collection of arterial blood is technically more demanding ...

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which is an acute, potentially life-threatening complication of poorly controlled diabetes, is the subject of a recent comprehensive review article.   The authors discuss epidemiological issues, revealing increasing incidence of DKA and decreasing mortality.  Once inevitably fatal, DKA...

In regulating blood bicarbonate concentration the kidneys play a central role in acid-base homeostasis, and severe renal failure causes metabolic acidosis. This is a disturbance of acid-base characterized by primary reduction in blood bicarbonate and pH, and secondary (compensatory) decrease in pCO₂. One of the aims...

Three parameters generated during blood gas analysis, pH, pCO₂ and bicarbonate, provide the means for assessment of patient acid-base status, which is frequently disturbed in the acutely/critically ill. Four broad classes of acid-base disturbance are recognized: metabolic acidosis, respiratory acidosis, metabolic...

This recently published case study report provides a reminder that blood gas analysis plays an important role in the emergency room assessment of unconscious patients and that disturbance of acid-base homeostasis can be attributable to ingestion of toxic chemicals. The case concerns a 37-year old non-insulin dependant ...

Health demands that blood pH is maintained within narrow limits (7.35-7.45). Acidosis (i.e. pH <7.35) is a common feature of many acute/critical conditions that warrant admission to intensive care. pH <6.8 is commonly reported in medical texts as incompatible with life, but there are rare individual case reports of...

A clinical requirement for determination of the pH and base deficit (BD) of umbilical-cord arterial blood has ensured a role for the blood gas analyzer in the delivery suite of obstetric units.  The principal objective of this testing in the minutes immediately after birth is to identify those babies who have been...

Blood gas analysis involves measurement of three parameters: pH, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂) and partial pressure of oxygen (pO₂). Derived (calculated from these measured values) parameters also generated during blood gas analysis include: bicarbonate (HCO₃) concentration, base excess (BE) and oxygen...

The maintenance of blood pH within normal limits (7.35-7.45), called acid-base homeostasis, is a complex synergy involving three organs (lungs, kidneys and brain) as well as chemical buffers in blood and blood cells (erythrocytes). This vital physiologic process is the subject of a recent expert review article,...