Practice ABG Case Studies from Ed4Nurses.com

1. Mr. Frank is a 60 year-old with pneumonia. He is admitted with dyspnea, fever, and chills. His blood gas is below:
pH 7.28 CO2 56 PO2 70 HCO3 25 SaO2 89%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mr. Frank?

2. Ms. Strauss is a 24 year-old college student. She has a history of Crohn's disease and is complaining a of a four day history of bloody-watery diarrhea. A blood gas is obtained to assess her acid/base balance:
pH 7.28 CO2 43 pO2 88 HCO3 20 SaO2 96%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Ms. Strauss?

3. Mr. Karl is a 80 year-old nursing home resident admitted with urosepsis. Over the last two hours he has developed shortness of breath and is becoming confused. His ABG shows the following results:
pH 7.02 CO2 55 pO2 77 HCO3 14 SaO2 89%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mr. Karl?

4. Mrs. Lauder is a thin, elderly-looking 61 year-old COPD patient. She has an ABG done as part of her routine care in the pulmonary clinic. The results are as follows:
pH 7.37 CO2 63 pO2 58 HCO3 35 SaO2 89%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mrs. Lauder?

5. Ms. Steele is a 17 year-old with intractable vomiting. She has some electrolyte abnormalities, so a blood gas is obtained to assess her acid/base balance.
pH 7.50 CO2 36 pO2 92 HCO3 27 SaO2 97%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Ms. Steele?

6. Mr. Longo is a 18 year-old comatose, quadriplegic patient who has the following ABG done as part of a medical workup:
pH 7.48 CO2 22 pO2 96 HCO3 16 SaO2 98%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mr. Longo?

7. Mr. Casper is a 55 year-old with GERD. He takes about 15 TUMS antacid tablets a day. An ABG is obtained to assess his acid/base balance:
pH 7.46 CO2 42 pO2 86 HCO3 29 SaO2 97%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mr. Casper?

8. Mrs. Dobins is found pulseless and not breathing this morning. After a couple minutes of CPR she responds with a pulse and starts breathing on her own. A blood gas is obtained:
pH 6.89 CO2 70 pO2 42 HCO3 13 SaO2 50%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mrs. Dobins?

9. After resuscitating Mrs. Dobins, you find Mr. Simmons to be in respiratory distress. He has a history of Type-I diabetes mellitus and is now febrile. (Wow, what a bad day). His ABG shows:
pH 7.00 CO2 59 pO2 86 HCO3 14 SaO2 91%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Mr. Simmons?

10. Ms. Berth was admitted for a drug overdose. She is being mechanically ventilated and a blood gas is obtained to assess her for weaning. The results are as follows:
pH 7.54 CO2 19 pO2 100 HCO3 16 SaO2 98%
What is your interpretation?
What interventions would be appropriate for Ms. Berth?

Answers in Comments

I passed the NCLEX!

I found I had an RN License today!I am finally FOR REAL and feel that I can actually start moving on a plan for my new life!
I took my NCLEX on Fri the 2nd of Feb in SF and my license was issued Feb 5th. Woo Hoo! I will post in the comments on how it went, later.

Sample Hemodynamics problems from lecture

These two problems were given to us in lecture by Antaran. I've posted the answers in the first comment.

Problem #1

BP = NORMAL
MAP = 63
CO = 8.2
CVP= 12
PCWP = 20
PVR = 275
SVR = 480

What do you have?

Problem #2

BP = NORMAL
MAP = 63
CO = 3
CVP = 12
PCWP = 20
PVR = 475
SVR = 1800

What do you have?