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Base excess (BE) was introduced by Siggaard-Andersen in 1960 as an answer to the forty-year-long quest for a reliable, stand-alone marker of metabolic acidosis/alkalosis, independent from co-existing respiratory derangements, and able to quantify the severity of the disorder [1]. Previously, several parameters had been examined. The first was actual bicarbonate (HCO3−) [2], which was quickly discarded due to its known dependency on the partial pressure of CO2 (PCO2).