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Cecil T.G. Flear, MD, FRCP; Joseph K. Covington, PHD, DSc; FFARCS Stoddart, MBBS, MD
Newcastle Upon T[ill]ne, England

Arch Intern Med. 1984;144(11):2285-2287.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—In their editorial in the November 1983 ARCHIVES, Garfinkel and Gelfman¹ stated that there is "widespread" uncertainty about what total CO₂ content actually is" and that "CO₂ (from total CO₂ content)... is often confused in the clinician's mind with Pco₂." They submit that using the terms bicarbonate concentration or bicarbonate instead would avoid this confusion and simplify understanding of acid base metabolism. We disagree. We believe that to do so would only further obscure the confusion already inherent in current clinical biochemical practices.

It is current teaching that change in pH results from alteration of the ratio, in circulating plasma, between concentrations of bicarbonate ions ([Hco₃]_p) and of dissolved CO₂ molecules plus carbonic acid.² This interrelationship is presented in the Henderson-Hassel-balch equation,

Where Pco₂ is the partial pressure of CO₂ with which plasma is in equilibrium, s is the solubility factor for plasma and

pH, Pco² . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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