[Verified Answer]: Karen, a 15 year old female, is brought into…

Karen, a 15 year old female, is brought into the emergency room by her parents. She had been sick for about 3 days, feeling very weak and tired. She was unable to attend school or go to gymnastics practice. She had eaten very little during this time, which concerned her mother as Karen had recently been losing weight and was currently only 95 pounds. When Karen’s mother checked on her in the afternoon, she found her in her in the bathroom, unresponsive. Based on the history, Karen’s diagnosis was severe starvation, leading to metabolic acidosis. 1. What is the cause of Karen’s metabolic acidosis? “Acute forms of metabolic acidosis most frequently result from the overproduction of organic acids such as ketoacids or lactic acid; by contrast, chronic metabolic acidosis often reflects bicarbonate wasting and/or impaired renal acidification.” (Jung et al.,2019) 2. What lab findings would you expect with this condition?