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6.7: Assessment

  • Page ID
    11052
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    The severity of a respiratory alkalosis is determined by the difference between the actual pCO2 and the expected pCO2

    The actual pCO2 is the measured value from the blood gas results.

    If no metabolic acid-base disorder is present, a pCO2 of 40 mmHg is taken as the reference point (ie the expected pCO2).

    If a metabolic disorder is present, respiratory compensation will produce a new reference value of pCO2 for comparison. The expected pCO2 can be estimated using the formula in Section 5.5 (for metabolic acidosis) or Section 7.5 (for metabolic alkalosis).


    This page titled 6.7: Assessment is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kerry Brandis via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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