“My son's arterial blood gas test in the hospital is showing a high level of CO2. Should we get this checked again?”
My son who is 17 years old has been admitted in the hospital for pneumonia. The lab here just took his blood to test arterial blood gas and it is showing a high level of CO2, though my son is not showing any symptoms associated with that. Should I ask an external lab to check too?
4 Answers
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and sleep apnea are two common conditions associated with hypercapnia (high CO2). Dehydration can cause increase CO2. Also, another cause is hypoxemia (low level of oxygen in blood). In children causes are many and they are kidney diseases, lung diseases, metabolic conditions like diabetes. When we do arterial blood gases, is a very precise procedures, however, talk to your doctor to repeat the test, he will do it. Thank you.
You could but it sounds like that the pneumonia is preventing him form releasing the stored up CO2. That is not unusual. Continue to get the pneumonia and follow up with subsequent arterial gases.
RB Thomas, MD
RB Thomas, MD
In my opinion, the CO2 levels will be same in other lab as long as the method of CO2 measurement is same. So using a different lab for this purpose will not be helpful. Also, as long as your son's other vitals are stable and he has no sypmtoms, it should be ok. Some over the counter prescription may alter the CO2 levels and so be sure to tell your doctor if your son was taking something before going to hospital
This might be related to his pneumonia. Repeat testing after complete recovery from pneumonia should show improvement.
