Severe metabolic acidosis in critically Ill patients and its association with the outcome in North Karnataka

Background: Outcomes of metabolic acidosis remain unsure and needs to be explored deeply. This article presents a rational approach to diagnosis and management of metabolic acidosis. The data focusing specifically on severe metabolic acidosis (pH<7.20) is scanty. Methods: It was a prospective observational study. A total of 50 consecutive critically ill patients (APACHE II score of 18 or more) with single severe metabolic acidosis (pH<7.20) admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) of Shri BM Patil Medical College, Vijayapura. Arterial blood gas analysis along with other relevant investigations was done within first 24 h of ICU admission.Results: Among 50 patients, 32 patients expired compared to 18 patients who were discharged from hospital in stable condition. Out of 29 patients, who had lactic acidosis, 21 (72%) patients died compared to 8 (28%) patients who were discharged in stable condition. Out of 22 patients who have low Strong Ion Difference (SID) 16 patients had expired (76%) remaining 6 (24%) patients are discharged at stable condition. Out of 27 patients who were put on mechanical ventilator on the first day, 22 (80%) patients expired. 18 patients required vasopressor support on admission out of which 16 (90%) patients had lactic acidosis. Conclusions: Lactic acidosis and strong ion gap are found to be associated with higher mortality. Hypotensive patients required vasopressor support on admission. Monitoring of serum pH, HCO3−, lactate levels and strong ion gap may have prognostic and therapeutic implications.

Acid base disorders in hospitalized cattle

The objectives of this retrospective study were to determine the main acid-base and electrolytes disorders in hospitalized cattle, using both Henderson-Hasselbalch and the physicochemical approach and to compare their diagnostic and therapeutic utility. A total of 31 medical records were reviewed of bovines admitted to the Large Animal Hospital at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, that met the inclusion criteria of the measurement of blood gases, blood electrolytes and plasma protein on admission before providing any treatment. Using the Henderson-Hasselbalch approach, acid base abnormalities were found in 83.3% of the patients, compared to 93.5% using the physicochemical approach. The principal acid-base disorders found were strong ion acidosis (61.29%) and weak acid acidosis (38.7%); strong ion gap (SIG) acidosis was found in 73.68% of cases showing strong ion acidosis. These results highlight the importance of the diagnosis of acid-base disorders in sick cattle for proper recognition of pathophysiological phenomena and its understanding to guide treatment decisions.

Comparison between bicarbonate-based and Stewart methods to assess metabolic acid-base disorders in internistic patients. A pilot study

Aim: To assess the acid-base status in a cohort of internistic patients, using traditional and “modern” methods, to compare their different sensitivity to detect metabolic disorders and to evaluate a possible relationship between classical and alternative parameters.Patients and Methods: 143 assessment of acid-base and electrolytes balance on 121 internistic patients (76 males and 45 females, mean age 73.9 ± 10,8 years) were examined according to bicarbonate-based and Stewart methods.Results: The traditional method detected 81 cases (56.6 %) of metabolic alkalosis and 15 cases (10.4 %) of metabolic acidosis. The Stewart method detected 92 cases (64.3 %) of metabolic alkalosis and 22 cases (15.3%) of metabolic acidosis.Traditional method failed to detect 11 cases of metabolic alkalosis (chi square = 1.443; p = 0.226), and 7 cases of metabolic acidosis (chi square = 1.118; p = 0.290) when compared to Stewart's method. A significant relationship was observed between Strong Ion Gap (SIG) and Anion Gap corrected for albumin concentration (AGcorr) (r= 0.53; p <0.001).Conclusions: Our result showed that traditional method is useful to assess acid-base status in internistic clinical setting as well as Stewart's method because no significant difference was found between the two approaches. Nevertheless, the light disagreement observed between the two methods suggests that in a small percentage of cases the traditional method can fail to detect metabolic acid-base abnormalities.

The significance of strong ion gap for predicting return of spontaneous circulation in patients with cardiopulmonary arrest

Useful parameters that can predict return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in patients with cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) have not been established. We previously reported the usefulness of anion gap (AG) and albumin-corrected anion gap (ACAG) calculated from a blood sample obtained on arrival at the hospital for the prediction of ROSC. Otherwise, it has been reported that strong ion gap (SIG), which shows the difference between the levels of fully dissociated cations and anions in the serum, is useful to predict the prognosis of critically ill patients.This was a prospective and observational clinical study. Patients with CPA transferred to the emergency department of our hospital between January 2013 and December 2014 were evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups: patients who obtained ROSC [ROSC(+) group] and those who did not [ROSC(−) group]. We compared AG, ACAG and SIG between the two groups.A total of 170 patients were enrolled. Fifty patients were included in the ROSC(+) group, and the remaining 120 in the ROSC(−) group. Both AG and ACAG were significantly better in the ROSC(+) group; however, there was no significant difference in SIG between the two groups. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) for ROSC of both AG and ACAG were almost the same (0.72 and 0.708, respectively); the AUC of SIG (0.57) was inferior to those of AG and ACAG.Our results suggest that AG and ACAG can better predict ROSC following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) compared with SIG.