Clinical Acid-Base Balance

Acid-Base is an area which lies within no one specialty and yet is important in renal and pulmonary conditions, for intensive care, and within medicine in general. This book is concise, yet provides comprehensive coverage of acid-base balance in a clinical context. It explains the fundamental processes, their nature and their significance, with an emphasis on practical aspects. The book is divided into three parts, the first providing an introduction to the topic, explaining the underlying principles and concepts of acid-base balance. The second section considers simple disturbances of acid-base balance, and their diagnosis and treatment. The final part concerns mixed disturbances and discusses how acid-base data should be tackled. This section provides a simple and logical approach to the practical problems of the interpretation of acid-base data.

R. A. Cowan is Lecturer in the University Department of Pathological Biochemistry at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow.