Question

f a patient has a drug overdose leading to hypoventilation, what if anything would you expect to happen to the bicarbonate buffering (carbonic anhydrase) reaction, and blood pH?

a) left shift, decrease pH

b) left shift, increase pH (alkalosis)

c) right shift, decrease pH (acidosis)

d) right shift, increase pH

e) no shift, no change in pH

Answer 1

c) left shift, decrease pH

Explanation: Bicarbonate buddering reaction involves the combination of H2O with CO2 to form H2CO3 which dissociate to yield bicarbonate.

Hypoventilation prevents the wash out of carbon dioxide to outside leading to accumulation of CO2 in the blood. This leads to the excessive formation of H+ ion. This decreases the ph of the blood leading to acidosis

In acidosis, left shift to this reaction occurs so that more bicarbonate combines with H+ of acid to buffer it while during alkalosis, more h+ are generated by right shift to decrease the high pH.