Question

Jerry, a 53 year old man, comes into the emergency room with severe shortness of breath. His wife indicated that he has been a smoking a pack a day since he was 16. He has had shortness of breath over the past few years when he has been when working, and when playing football with the kids. He has recently noticed that he is experiencing shortness of breath, even when watching TV. He has no documented medical conditions.

Glucose	92 mg/dL
BUN	18mg/dL
HCO3	45 mmol/L
CL-	103 mmol/L
Na+	141 mmol/L
K+	5.2 mmol/L
Creatinine	0.8mg/dL
pH	7.28
PCO2	65 mm Hg
PO2	55 mm Hg

In your discussion post, discuss Jerry’s results. Some items to include in your post include, but are not limited to:

- whether it is acidosis or alkalosis?

- whether the disorder is metabolic or respiratory?

- what the pathological basis is for the acid-base disorder?

Answer 1

The patient pH is below normal limit it means it is acidosis

Along with this the patient PCO2 is increased which means there is accumulation of carbon dioxide in the lung and not able to expire it and PO2 is decreased which means adequate oxygen is not received the patient. Therefore it is the thing of respiration and termed as respiratory acidosis .Also the bicarbonate level is more than 30 mmHg which means the state is chronic. The patient is experiencing chronic respiratory acidosis

The respiratory acidosis occurs due to imbalances in the carbon dioxide level.More is accumulated instead of excretion .Here the patient is experiencing this due to smoking habit for a long time and moreover has neglected the symptoms of shortness of breath.This finally increases PCO2 level and decreases pH level in the body and causing respiratory acidosis