The Controller and Acid-Base Physiology: An Introduction to a Complex Process

Henderson-Hasselbalch Equation

Use this diagram to vary the and/or and observe how the blood changes. In this figure, we introduce the "balance" analogy, depicting the interplay between , , and . In reality, a change in one of the parameters in this diagram would lead to compensatory processes. For example, a change in would acutely cause a change in by driving the reaction toward the right side. In this diagram, we allow you to vary and independently with the sliders to calculate the given by the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation for various and combinations.

Using this figure with an AI assistant

If you use an AI assistant that can see this page, whether it is built into your browser or opens the page in its own browser, you can ask it about this figure, ask it to show you what happens when bicarbonate or PCO₂ changes, or ask it to take you through one of the tours. It can move the sliders, point out parts of the balance, and explain what you see. The rest of this section is for the assistant.

An AI assistant can change this figure in three ways. In a browser with WebMCP, the page offers its actions as tools. In the page's scripts, the same actions are in window.physiologyFigures, with a description of the controls and what they mean, the parts it can point out, the values shown, the model's limits, and the Show Me tours. Both move the sliders the way a reader would, wait for the figure to redraw, and return the exact values. An assistant can also type into the boxes beside the sliders, but then it has to read the results off the screen. The page address always holds a link to the current settings.