Metabolic acidosis — how to suspect it without a blood gas

Read any kidney-disease book or the big overseas CKD sites and you will meet the line "check for metabolic acidosis." Then you walk into your local clinic, which has no blood gas analyser, or has one but tells you "that is for emergencies." So for many caregivers, acidosis becomes a number they know about but can never see. This article is meant to close that gap: what acidosi…