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thupham thupham
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9 years ago
Please help me, I need to know, what is the rate of the concentration of CO2 and HCO3-in the human blood? An the dependence of pH on the concentration of CO2 ?
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9 years ago
Normal concentration of HCO3 in the blood is 22-26, some people will say up to 28. Normal pH of the blood is 7.35-7.45. Normal CO2 concentrations in the blood is 35-45.

pH fluctuates if either HCO3 or CO2 is out of range. There are two types of states of ph imbalance - acidosis and alkalosis. The body has three systems that will attempt to resolve the states of imbalance - buffer system, repiratory and metabolic.
The buffer system acts within seconds to minutes, the respiratory will take over for minutes to hours and the metabolic(kidneys) will kick in after three days.
There are four combinations: respiratory acidosis, respiratory alkalosis, metabolic acidosis and metabolic alkalosis. They can all be compensating or not (the body might be trying to fix these states on its own, or it may not).

For instance, if you are in a state of respiratory acidosis, (pH less than 7.35 and a value outside the normal CO2 range) then this means your body is holding on to too much CO2, causing H+ protons to be retained (which is what the H in pH means). Usually the body's short term answer is to breathe faster (like in an anxious patient) in order to get rid of CO2. A person cannot hyperventilate for a long period of time however (they will pass out from inefficient gas exchange), so the kidneys kick in (after three days) in order to compensate and try and get rid of the body's acidic state (excreting H+ in urine). This is how the three pH, CO2 and HCO3 are all related.

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