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Module title = Tutorial: Blood Gases
Lesson title = Metabolic or Respiratory
This is lesson 3 of 9 in this module
Please see lesson #1 (Acidosis or Alkalosis) for the podcast on this lesson.
After you determine if the pH is acidosis or alkalosis, your next job is to determine what is driving the disturbance. In other words, is it a respiratory process driven by an abnormal CO
2
or is it a metabolic process, driven by an abnormal bicarb?
Step 1 is to determine the state of acidosis vs. alkalosis.
Step 2 is to determine what is driving the process.
If
acidosis
is present, then:
a
high pCO2
could be causing it ... or ...
a
low bicarb
could be causing it
If
alkalosis
is present, then:
a low pCO2 could be causing it ... or ...
a high bicarb could be causing it
In a simple world (and it never is), only one process would occur at one time. Most of the time, there is
another process
also occuring that tries to reverse or balance out the process. This occurs because the body does not like to be acidotic or alkalotic. It likes to be neutral.
When the human body is trying to reverse the primary acid-base problem, we refer to this secondary process as a
compensatory process
, which we will discuss in the next lesson.
Sometimes, there are processes that are driving the acid-base balance in the
same direction
. For example, it is possible to have both a
respiratory
acidosis and a
metabolic
acidosis
at the same time
. Or it is possible to have a respiratory alkalosis and metabolic alkalosis both at the same time. These are
not
compensatory because they do not reverse the problem; they amplify it.
Lesson 3 of 9
That was the last lesson!