an arterial blood gas is a test that measures the blood levels of oxygen carbon dioxide and
acid-base balance in the body it's used to assess how well oxygen is being distributed
and how well carbon dioxide is being removed we created this video to cover the medical
definition and provide a brief overview of this topic so if you're ready let's get into it
as previously mentioned an abg test is performed when a doctor or respiratory therapist collects an
arterial blood sample from a patient for this test it's important to know that the blood must come
from an artery because arterial blood is saturated with oxygen the patient's blood is run through a
machine that analyzes the sample and tells us as medical professionals a lot about their condition
in general normal healthy lungs help move oxygen throughout the body while removing carbon dioxide
this process is known as gas exchange the body is receiving fuel in the form of oxygen while
eliminating waste in the form of carbon dioxide if a patient has breathing problems or a disease
that affects the lungs their abg results would be abnormal which means that their results
would fall outside of the normal ranges so in order to interpret and understand abg's
you must know the normal values and ranges in general an abg test looks at the following
first you have the ph which refers to the acid-base balance of the blood then you
have the partial pressure of oxygen or pao2 which refers to the amount of oxygen in arterial blood
then you have the partial pressure of carbon dioxide or paco2 which refers to the amount
of carbon dioxide in arterial blood and you also have bicarbonate or hco3 which refers to the total
amount of co2 that is transported in the blood and an abg test also looks at the oxygen saturation
or spo2 which refers to the amount of hemoglobin in the blood that is saturated with oxygen
again this is why the blood sample must come from an artery instead of a vein now let's look at the
normal value ranges a normal ph falls within the range of 7.35 to 7.45 normal pao tube is
75 to 100. normal paco2 is 35-45 normal bicarb is 22-26 and a normal oxygen saturation is 94 to 100
again it's not until you learn the normal values that you truly understand a b interpretation
which is a topic that we have covered a lot here on our channel for this video we simply just
wanted to cover the medical definition and provide a brief overview of this topic i'll drop links to
some of our other helpful resources on abg's down below in the description real quick guys do me
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dive deeper and learn more about this topic you can go to respiratorytherapyzone.com where we
have a ton of free study guides practice questions and other helpful resources
i'll drop links to everything you need right below this video down in the description thank you so
much for watching all the way to the end have a blessed day and as always real easy my friend
you