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🧪 The Anion Gap: A Clinical Detective Tool for Diagnosing Metabolic Acidosis

Anion gap:
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🧪 The Anion Gap: A Clinical Detective Tool for Diagnosing Metabolic Acidosis

This simulator demonstrates how adjusting serum sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate changes the calculated anion gap, and how that result classifies a case of metabolic acidosis as either a high anion gap or a normal anion gap process.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

This simulator demonstrates how adjusting serum sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate changes the calculated anion gap, and how that result classifies a case of metabolic acidosis as either a high anion gap or a normal anion gap process.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust the sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate values to see the anion gap calculated in real time, and observe how different combinations point toward accumulating unmeasured acids versus direct bicarbonate loss.

💡 Did You Know?

Because albumin is a major unmeasured anion, a patient with critically low albumin can have a dangerously elevated true anion gap that appears deceptively normal on the standard calculation.