Talk:Anion gap
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The external links appear to be advertisements for reference books. Should they be removed, or listed instead as references? Poslfit 18:24, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Mnemonics
I have removed this text:
The mnemonic "MUDPILES" is used to remember the causes of a high anion gap.[1]
M - methanol/metformin
U - uremia
D - diabetic ketoacidosis
P - paraldehyde/propylene glycol
I - Infection/ischemia/isoniazid
L - lactate
E - ethylene glycol/ethanol
S - salicylates/starvation
Some people, especially those not in the emergency room, find the mnemonic KIL-U easier to remember and also more useful clinically:
K - Ketones
I - Ingestion
L - lactic acid
U - uremia
All of the components of "mudpiles" are also covered with the "KIL-U" device, with the bonus that these are things that can kill you.
Ketones: more straightforward than remembering diabetic ketosis and starvation ketosis, etc.
Ingestion: methanol, metformin, paraldehyde, propylene glycol, isoniazid, ethylene glycol, ethanol, and salicilates are covered by ingestion. These can be thought of as a single group: "ingestions" during the initial consideration, especially when not triaging a patient in the emergency room.
Lactate: including that caused by infection and shock
Another good way of remembering is the acronym "KUSSMAUL"(also reminder of the typical breathing of acidotic patients)
"K" Ketosis (DKA)
"U" Uremia
"SS" Salicylate poisoning
"M" Methanol Poisoning
"A" Ethylene poisoning (previously spelt Aethylene)
"U" Uremia
"L" Lactic Acidosis
because we generally try to avoid the inclusion of mnemonic devices in medicine-related articles, particularly when the mnemonic itself is not independently notable. Wikipedia is written for the average reader, not for medical students. If there is any individual piece of information that is important to the article, then please extract it from the mnemonic section here and add it back to the article in some more organized fashion. Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:27, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
