Topic summary
Acidemia
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Acidosis.
Acidemia
The term acidemia describes the state of low blood pH, when arterial pH falls below 7.35 (except in the fetus – see below) while acidosis is used to describe the processes leading to these states. The use of acidosis for a low pH creates an ambiguity in its meaning. The difference is important where a patient has factors causing both acidosis and alkalosis, wherein the relative severity of both determines whether the result is a high, low, or normal pH.