Sara stepped outside to water her garden while her almost three-year-old son Nat

Question

Sara stepped outside to water her garden while her almost three-year-old son Nathan was napping early one afternoon. When she came back inside a few minutes later she found him sitting on the kitchen counter happily munching on tablets from a bottle of antacids she had left out that morning. There were eight partially eaten tablets and Sara is concerned that he may have eaten others, but doesn’t know how many. Sara calls the poison control center who directs her to take Nathan to the hospital.
What effect would this have on the blood pH? 2- Which type of acidosis or alkalosis is Nathan experiencing?
3- What about the antacids has caused this response?
4- When they arrive at the hospital what would you expect Nathan’s pH, pCO2 and HCO3- to be?
5- What would his body do to compensate, including what would happen to his breathing rate?
Sara stepped outside to water her garden while her almost three-year-old son Nathan was napping early one afternoon. When she came back inside a few minutes later she found him sitting on the kitchen counter happily munching on tablets from a bottle of antacids she had left out that morning. There were eight partially eaten tablets and Sara is concerned that he may have eaten others, but doesn’t know how many. Sara calls the poison control center who directs her to take Nathan to the hospital.
What effect would this have on the blood pH? 2- Which type of acidosis or alkalosis is Nathan experiencing?
3- What about the antacids has caused this response?
4- When they arrive at the hospital what would you expect Nathan’s pH, pCO2 and HCO3- to be?
5- What would his body do to compensate, including what would happen to his breathing rate?
Sara stepped outside to water her garden while her almost three-year-old son Nathan was napping early one afternoon. When she came back inside a few minutes later she found him sitting on the kitchen counter happily munching on tablets from a bottle of antacids she had left out that morning. There were eight partially eaten tablets and Sara is concerned that he may have eaten others, but doesn’t know how many. Sara calls the poison control center who directs her to take Nathan to the hospital.
What effect would this have on the blood pH? 2- Which type of acidosis or alkalosis is Nathan experiencing?
3- What about the antacids has caused this response?
4- When they arrive at the hospital what would you expect Nathan’s pH, pCO2 and HCO3- to be?
5- What would his body do to compensate, including what would happen to his breathing rate?
Sara stepped outside to water her garden while her almost three-year-old son Nathan was napping early one afternoon. When she came back inside a few minutes later she found him sitting on the kitchen counter happily munching on tablets from a bottle of antacids she had left out that morning. There were eight partially eaten tablets and Sara is concerned that he may have eaten others, but doesn’t know how many. Sara calls the poison control center who directs her to take Nathan to the hospital.
What effect would this have on the blood pH? 2- Which type of acidosis or alkalosis is Nathan experiencing?
3- What about the antacids has caused this response?
4- When they arrive at the hospital what would you expect Nathan’s pH, pCO2 and HCO3- to be?
5- What would his body do to compensate, including what would happen to his breathing rate?

Explanation / Answer

Buffer systems, respiratory and renal mechanisms in the body work together to maintain the acid-base balance of the body and help to maintain a fairly constant pH of the blood.

Antacids are substances which on ingestion react with the gastric acid and lower the acidity of the gastric contents. They produce a symptomatic relief of heartburn, pain from peptic ulcers and also reduce spasm

Effect on blood pH: In this case, accidental consumption of antacids leads to increased level of normal blood pH (above pH 7.4) leading to Akalosis. This results due to the increased bicarbonate content of the blood

The increased pH above 7.4 uses up the acid reserve of the blood and a state of alkalosis develops. Body regulates the acid base level in the body with help of buffer systems like MHCO3/H2CO3, M2HPO4/MH2PO4 where M represents Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+. The ability of the complex buffer systems in the body to neutralise bases(in this case antacids) produced in the body is called acid reserve of the blood.

The buffer reactions generally utilize carbonic acid as follows:

H2O + CO2 -<--------> H2CO3 <------> H+ + HCO3-

If acid (consists of H+ ions-protons) is produced, it combines with the HCO3- ions to form carbonic acid as shown above and conversely if base (OH- ions : Hydroxyl ions)is produced it reacts with H+ (acid reserve of body) to produce water which is again utilized in the above reaction.

Too much of base utiliizes acid reserve and body fails to compensate

2. The child N in the givenn case is experiencing Metabolic alkalosis due to increased bicarbonate content of the blood as the primary source of pH rise is attributed to plasma. Metabolic alkalosis may also develop in cases of high intestinal obstruction which leads to vomiting and loss of gastric juice

3.

About Antacids:

Antacids may be classified into:

i.)Systemic (absorbable Antacids): which are soluble, readily absorbable and capable of producing systemic alkalosis

Ex. Sodium Bicarbonate

ii.) Non Systemic (Non-absorbable Antacids): which are not absorbed to a significant extent and thus do not exert an appreciable systemic effect

a.) Aluminium Containing Antacids: Ex. Aluminium Hydroxide, Aluminium phosphate, Basic aluminium carbonate

b.) Calcium containing antacids: Ex. Calcium carbonate. Tribasic calcium phosphate

c.) Magnesium Containing antacids: Ex. Magnesium carbonate, Magnesium Citrate, Magnesium Hydroxide

d.) Combination antacid preparations: Ex. Aluminium Hydroxide gel and Magnesium Hydroxide, Aluminium Hydroxide gel and magnesium trisilicate

As explained above in the introduction antacids uses up the acid reserve and would have resulted in the Metabolic alkalosis

4.

Metabolic alkalosis

due to HCO3- excess, (As a result of K+ ion excess, excess antacids intake, vomiting etc)

5. As seen from the above mentioned table, Compensation mechanisms in the body is attempted by

i. Depression of respiration and breathing rate (which helps in retention of CO2) and

(Accumulation of CO2 in the body results in acidosis by formation of carbonic acid and thus H+ ions which counters the condition to some extent)

ii. Excretion of Alkaline urine by kidneys

Condition pH pCO2 pHCO3- pCl- Buffer system Respiratory function Renal function

Metabolic alkalosis

due to HCO3- excess, (As a result of K+ ion excess, excess antacids intake, vomiting etc)

Increases Increases Increases Decreases HCO3-/H2CO3 CO2 retention leading to increase of H2CO3 concentration Decrease in Na+/ H+ exchange, decrease in NH3 formation and HCO3- reabsorption

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.