Introduction Acid-base disorders are commonly seen throughout medicine acidosis results in an abnormally elevated H+ concentration in the blood (thus called acidemia) alkalosis results in an abnormally decreased H+ concentration in the blood (thus called alkalemia) These acid-base disorders may be caused by a primary disturbance in HCO3- resulting in a metabolic acidosis or alkalosis a primary disturbance in PCO2 resulting in a respiratory acidosis or alkalosis Simple acid-base disorders blood pH abnormalities caused by one acid base disorder metabolic acidosis due to a decrease in blood HCO3- login to view 2 more bullets metabolic alkalosis due to an increase in blood HCO3- login to view 8 more bullets respiratory acidosis due to an increase in PCO2 login to view 6 more bullets respiratory alkalosis due to a decrease in PCO2 login to view 7 more bullets Anion gap under normal conditions, anions and cations are equal to each other within any body fluid compartment (e.g., plasma) the major cation that is measured is Na+ the major anions that are measured is HCO3- and Cl- because there is more Na+ than HCO3- and Cl- there are unmeasured anions that allow us to achieve electroneutrality login to view 1 more bullet anion gap = Na+ - (Cl- + HCO3-) login to view 1 more bullet anion gap is very useful for narrowing the differential diagnosis of metabolic acidosis normal anion gap metabolic acidosis (also called hyperchloremic metabolic acidosis with a normal anion gap) login to view 8 more bullets elevated anion gap metabolic acidosis login to view 9 more bullets