Elevated TCO2 Levels --- Discussion.

......the horses blood would all be full of CO2 gas post race..... as this is where it is produced during exercise and racing and much much  more than an over fractious or very fit sort pre race.....the CO2 gas readings vvould then vary on a massive  scale 

Muhitman not sure your angle here.. Calibrating equipment must be easy to do.. Well it is in every other profession

.....the hand held unit readings need to be verified against separate lab testing as they did in Singapore.....problem is their lab like Tuffies is close the course...... so no way these readings can be verified from KZN and the Cape.....as the Co2 dissipates from the control sample within 20-30 min and therefore cannot be verified by lab.....the way it is done here by only the iffy hand held instrument without proper laboratory verification is prone to legal  challenge  

Muhtiman wrote:

......the horses blood would all be full of CO2 gas post race..... as this is where it is produced during exercise and racing and much much  more than an over fractious or very fit sort pre race.....the CO2 gas readings vvould then vary on a massive  scale 

@Muhtiman,

What is the source or you data and the accompanying empirical evidence to conclude that the TCO2 levels post-race is higher than pre-race?

Shapiro-Wilk test, the Mann-Whitney tests and Kruskal-Wallis tests all concluded that the median pre-race serum TCO2 concentration (32.20 mmol/L (interquartile range (IQR): 30.80–33.50)) was higher than that of post-race samples (26.70 mmol/L (IQR: 24.55–29.25)) (P < .0001)
 

......just shows how volatile Co2 gas can be can be in the athlete system....it is produced at a rapid rate during exercise and obviously is then expelled at a faster rate.....I was led to believe that elevated levels would still be found in the system post exercise....so anyway sampling post race still shows nothing..... 

The TCO2 (total carbon dioxide) test is performed on the blood of racehorses as a means of combatting the practice of administering alkalizing agents for the purpose of enhancing performance. The purposes of this review are to present an overview of the factors contributing to TCO2 and to review the literature regarding TCO2 in adult Standardbred and Thoroughbred horses to demonstrate the range of variability of TCO2 in horses. Most of the research published on the topic of TCO2 or bicarbonate measurement in racehorses was accessed and reviewed. PubMed and Google Scholar were the primary search engines used to source the relevant literature. The main physicochemical factors that contribute to changes in TCO2 in horses at rest are changes in strong ions concentration, followed by changes in weak acid (i.e. plasma albumin) concentrations. There is a wide normal distribution of TCO2 in horses ranging from 23 mmol/L to 38 mmol/L. Independent of administration of alkalizing agents, blood TCO2 is affected mainly by feeding, time of day (diurnal variation), season and exercise. There are few studies that have reported hour-by-hour changes in TCO2. Racehorse population studies suffer from lack of validation regarding whether or not a horse was administered an alkalizing agent. It is concluded that the normal range of TCO2 in non-alkalized Standardbred and Thoroughbred horses is significantly wider than has been appreciated, that periods of elevated TCO2 appear to be normal for many horses at rest, and that a TCO2 test alone is not definitive for the purposes of determining of an alkalizing agent has been administered to a horse.