Oral acetazolamide in the assessment of (urine-blood) PCO2.

Urine-blood (U-B)Pco2 difference in children is usually assessed following urine alkalinization with oral sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). Since oral NaHCO3 is often poorly tolerated by children, we compared oral acetazolamide with oral NaHCO3 in a study of (U-B)Pco2. In the first phase of the study 14 children and adolescents aged 11.1 +/- 3.7 years (mean +/- SD) were studied. Eight participants had normal kidney function and 6 had disturbed distal acidification capacity. Each child was studied twice, once with oral NaHCO3 (2.5 mEq/kg) and once with acetazolamide (17 +/- 2 mg/kg). All studies were performed according to the standard protocol. Acetazolamide administration resulted in a lower blood pH than NaHCO3 (7.30 +/- 0.03 vs 7.38 +/- 0.06, P less than 0.001) and a lower serum bicarbonate (HCO3-) concentration (25.1 +/- 2.2 mEq/l vs 27.5 +/- 2.1 mEq/l, P less than 0.025). Acetazolamide also resulted in a higher urine Pco2 (81.9 +/- 26.2 mm Hg vs 71.6 +/- 18.2 mm Hg) than NaHCO3 (P less than 0.025). No significant differences between acetazolamide and NaHCO3 were observed with respect to their effects on urinary pH and HCO3- concentration, plasma Pco2 and (U-B)Pco2. Good linear correlations were found between the effects of acetazolamide and NaHCO3 on urine Pco2 (r = 0.878, P less than 0.001), and on (U-B)Pco2 (r = 0.795, P less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)