Impaired renal function is associated with greater urinary strong ion differences in critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis

Abstract

Purpose: Urinary excretion of chloride corrects metabolic acidosis, but this may be hampered in patients with impaired renal function. We explored the effects of renal function on acid-base characteristics and urinary strong ion excretion using the Stewart approach in critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis.

Materials and methods: We examined the plasma and urine chemistry in 65 critically ill (mixed medical and surgical) patients with metabolic acidosis. The apparent strong ion difference, effective strong ion difference, strong ion gap, and urinary simplified strong ion difference (urinary SID) were calculated. Linear regression analyses were used (1) to assess whether plasma creatinine concentrations were related to urinary SIDs values, adjusted for blood pH levels, and (2) to determine whether urinary SID values were associated with blood pH levels.

Results: Creatinine concentrations were positively and significantly (P < .001) associated with urinary SIDs values, adjusted for pH levels. Urinary simplified strong ion difference values were inversely and significantly (P < .001) related to pH levels.

Conclusions: In critically ill patients with metabolic acidosis, impaired renal function was associated with greater urinary SIDs. Subsequently, the higher urinary SIDs values were related to lower pH levels, illustrating the importance of renal chloride excretion to correct for acidosis.