An elderly, semiconscious patient is tentatively diagnosed as having acidosis. What components of the?
Iceman
arterial blood will be most valuable to quantify in determining if the acidosis is of respiratory origin?
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Do your own homework.
Acidosis can involve the lungs or the kidneys as the kidneys are the only organs that can eliminate or retain Hydrogen ions. Both organs are involved if you have acidosis.
In respiratory acidosis your breathing rate is reduced significantly first before the kidneys can be involved!!
this sounds like home work and you have no idea what you are asking.
An easy way to determine if it is respiratory is the ph and co2 will be going in opposite directions of each other.For respiratory acidosis, the ph goes down and the co2 up.To tell if it is acute or chronic…look at the bicarb…acute the bicarb will be normal…chronic the bicarb will go up trying to bring the ph back to normal range.