Elise Anderson is a 6-year-old girl who presents to the emergency department with a history of vomiting for the past 3 days. The nurse notices that her respiratory rate is abnormally low. What is the likely reason for this change in ventilation? Predict what Elise's arterial blood gas values would show.

Video transcript

Hey, everyone. Let's take a look at this question together, Emily's feet, ankles and legs are all swollen. Her doctor diagnoses edema and recommends diuretics. However, after a few days, she begins vomiting frequently, which was diagnosed as metabolic alkalosis. How can diuretics contribute to metabolic alkalosis? Is it answer choice? A by decreasing sodium ion reabsorption. Answer choice B by increasing potassium ion excretion. Answer choice C by decreasing chloride ion excretion or answer choice D by increasing hydrogen ion secretion. Let's work this problem out together to try to figure out which of the following answer choices best explains how those diuretics that were prescribed to Emily contributed to metabolic alkalosis. So, in order to solve this question, we have to recall what we have learned about how diuretics could contribute to metabolic alkalosis. And we know that the diuretics that were prescribed to Emily resulted in the loss of hydrogen ions from Emily vomiting. And in relation to diuretics, we know that diuretics can also increase the secretion of hydrogen ions in the renal tubules which that increased secretion of hydrogen ions in the renal tubules results in metabolic alkalosis. Since there is that loss of hydrogen in ions which increases blood ph leading to alkalosis. So the diuretics contribute to metabolic alkalosis by increasing the secretion of hydrogen ions in the renal tubules resulting in metabolic alkalosis. Which means that answer choice D by increasing hydrogen ion secretion is the correct answer. And all other answer choices are incorrect since that increased hydrogen ion secretion results in that loss of the hydrogen ions which increases blood ph. So answer choice D is the correct answer. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.