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Respiratory Compensation
Uncomplicated metabolic alkalosis rapidly (minutes to hours) generates hypoventilatory compensation that elevates the pCO2. Compensation reduces the arterial pH, but it generally remains >7.45. Although the magnitude of the hypoventilatory response is proportional to the [HCO3−] increase, the response is very variable (Figure 1) (3–6, M.A. Fallahzadeh, et al., unpublished observations).