Alkalosis

This is a deviation of blood pH towards the alkaline side (pH>7.44). It is caused by disturbances in the acid-base balance and deviation of the ratio between acid anions and alkaline cations towards the alkaline side. Alkalosis can be respiratory, due to poisoning with salicylates, CNS disorders (strokes, tumors, traumas, infections), during pulmonary artery embolism, chronic heart failure, uncontrolled hyperventilation, artificial ventilation, during lung inflammation, in hypothyroidism, pregnancy. During respiratory alkalosis, blood pH increases, pCO₂ decreases due to increased elimination through the lungs. The cause is any inappropriate increase in breathing rate and increased CO₂ elimination. During metabolic alkalosis, pH and bicarbonate concentration in the blood increase. Their concentration in blood plasma increases when more are formed in the stomach or kidneys and their excretion decreases, as well as when using exogenous bicarbonates or other alkaline substances. This can occur when vomiting, taking diuretics and mineralocorticoids, sodium bicarbonate (e.g., during cardiac resuscitation), as well as alkaline organic ions (e.g., lactate, citrate, and acetate), which are metabolized in the liver into bicarbonate.

Source | Glossary of Most Commonly Used Biomedical Terms and Concepts | Lithuanian University of Health Sciences | Academician Professor Antanas Praškevičius, Professor Laima Ivanovienė