Validation of the difference in urine and blood carbon dioxide tension during bicarbonate loading as an index of distal nephron acidification in experimental models of distal renal tubular acidosis.

Recent classifications of the several pathophysiologic types of distal renal tubular acidosis (secretory, voltage dependent, and gradient) have been based on the response of acidification parameters to a series of provocative maneuvers in vivo and in vitro. A reduction in the difference in urine and blood CO2 tension during bicarbonate loading (U-B pCO2 gradient), a widely applied parameter, has been employed as an index of reduced distal nephron proton secretion. This study was designed to test the validity of the U-B pCO2 gradient in a variety of experimental models of distal renal tubular acidosis by measuring and comparing disequilibrium pH (a direct technique to detect H+ secretion in situ) with the pCO2 in the papillary collecting duct of the rat in vivo during bicarbonate loading. Chronic amiloride, lithium chloride, and amphotericin-B administration, and the post-obstructed kidney models were employed. Amiloride resulted in an acidification defect which did not respond to sulfate infusion (urine pH = 6.15 +/- 0.08), and was associated with an obliteration of the acid disequilibrium pH (-0.26 +/- 0.05- -0.08 +/- 0.03) and reduction in papillary pCO2 (116.9 +/- 3.2 - 66.9 +/- 2.5 mmHg). The defect induced by lithium administration responded to Na2SO4 (urine pH = 5.21 +/- 0.06) but was similar to amiloride with respect to the observed reduction in disequilibrium pH (-0.04 +/- 0.02) and pCO2 (90.3 +/- 3.0 mmHg). The post-obstructed kidney model was characterized by an abnormally alkaline urine pH unresponsive to sulfate (6.59 +/- 0.06) and a reduction in disequilibrium pH (+0.02 +/- 0.06) and pCO2 (77.6 +/- 3.6 mmHg). Amphotericin-B resulted in a gradient defect as characterized by excretion of an acid urine after infusion of sodium sulfate (5.13 +/- 0.06). Unlike other models, however, amphotericin-B was associated with a significant acid disequilibrium pH (-0.11 +/- 0.05) and an appropriately elevated urine pCO2 (119.8 +/- 6.4 mmHg) which did not differ from the respective values in control rats. Thus, these findings support the use of the U-B pCO2 as a reliable means of demonstrating impaired distal nephron proton secretion in secretory and voltage-dependent forms of distal renal tubular acidosis (RTA) and supports the view that proton secretion is not impaired in gradient forms of distal RTA.