Abnormal acid accumulation or depletion of base. [ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0736-9199 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24381489 ]
Term information
- UMLS:C0001122
- SNOMEDCT_US:51387008
When describing acid-base abnormalities, acidosis and alkalosis refer to physiological processes that lower or raise the pH, respectively, while acidemia and alkalemia simply describe the state of an abnormal blood pH. This distinction is important: a patient with acidemia could have both a respiratory and metabolic acidosis as well as a concurrent metabolic alkalosis.