Analysis of blood gas can be a daunting task, but it is still one of the most helpful laboratory tests in managing respiratory and metabolic disorders. Busy medical students have struggled ineffectively with Hasselbach's modification of the Henderson equation, been torn between the Copenhagen and the Boston schools of thought; and lately, been confronted with the radically different strong-ion approach.
In modern medical practice, the health provider's time is precious, stressing the importance of retaining focus on those aspects of clinical medicine that truly matter. It makes sense to adopt an 'algorithmic' approach to studying topics that are often harder to understand, such as those rooted in clinical physiology. This book is therefore set out in the form of a logical sequence of flow charts, introducing and gradually building upon the underlying concepts and enabling greater opportunity to memorize individual concepts. It enables medical students, residents, nurses and respiratory care and intensive care practitioners to grasp the principles underlying respiratory and acid-base physiology quickly and to apply the concepts effectively in clinical decision making. To facilitate this, almost every section contained within has been designed to fit onto a single page.
Most subjects in clinical physiology are difficult to understand. In a day and age where the multi-tasking health providers time is precious and attention span short, it is necessary to retain focus on the aspects of clinical medicine which truly matter; at the same time it is more rewarding to build up difficult concepts in a stepwise manner. Medium sized handbooks are increasingly becoming popular. The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with blood gas/acid-base interpretation. There is a strong thread of pulmonary and renal physiology running through the text; an attempt has been made to simplify concepts and explain the whys and hows in health and disease. The book is almost exclusively set out in the form of flow-diagrams/algorithms. The treatment of the subject in this format, describing processes in logical steps should make it easy for the reader to cover a difficult-and sometimes dreaded- subject rapidly.
This book enables medical students, residents, nurses and respiratory care and intensive care practitioners to quickly grasp the underlying principles of respiratory and acid-base physiology and to effectively apply the concepts in clinical decision making.
