Comment on: “A critique of Stewart’s approach: the chemical mechanism of dilutional acidosis”

Abstract

Dear Editor, Even though Doberer et al. [1] have calculated the pH in their in vitro simulations for dilutional acidosis from Stewart’s master equation [2] as a function of the independent variables strong ion difference (SID), carbon dioxide partial pressure (pCO2) and total weak acid (Atot) and do not deny the advantage of the Stewart approach on a quantitative/ mathematical level, they doubt its usefulness on a diagnostic/ clinical and mechanistic level. However, Stewart is more than quantitative/mathematical and is physicochemically well grounded (see ESM).