Serum Potassium and the Electrocardiogram
نویسندگان
چکیده
THE purpose of this study is to correlate changes observed in the electrocardiogram with varying concentrations of serum potassium in commonly encountered clinical conditions. There has been much discussion and some disagreement in the literature concerning electrocardiographic criteria for hypokalemia. Many studies have dealt with the combination of 2 decidedly different aspects of hypokalemic states, namely the acute and the chronic. The electrocardiographic change may be related to the myocardial intracellular potassium, the myocardial extracellular potassium, the serum potassium, the transmembranous gradient of potassium, the rate of trau-smembranous diffusion of potassium, or the transmembranlous gradient of hydrogen ion. It is not the purpose of this paper to present the merits or details of these various theories. Many of these phenomena would necessarily be affected by other factors such as the concentration of other electrolytes and the environmental pH. Until more is known of the physiologic and biochemical mechanisms of body potassium and their relationship to total acid-base and electrolyte balance it may be difficult to use patients with acute transient hypokalemia who have a rapid alteration of their internal and external environment for the enunciation of electrocardiographic criteria for hypokalemia.
منابع مشابه
ESTIMATION OF POTASSIUM, CALCIUM, AND MAGNESIUM IN BLOOD AND MYOCARDIAL TISSUE, AND DIAGNOSTIC IMPORTANCE OF URINARY MAGNESIUM EXCRETION IN EXPERIMENTALLY-INDUCED MYOCARDIAL INJURY
The results obtained in the present investigations point to a definite correlation between the onset of myocardial injury, electrocardiographic changes and biochemical changes. Changes in the electrocardiogram and elevated serum levels were paralleled by an increased excretion of magnesium in urine as early as one hour. Serum calcium and serum potassium levels did not show any significant ...
متن کاملEffect of exercise on electrocardiograms of patients with low serum potassium.
DURING a recent study of the relationship between arterial pressure and exertional angina pectoris in hypertensive patients, it was observed that one patient who had hypokalemia but a normal control electrocardiogram exhibited electrocardiographic signs typical of potassium deficit following exercise. Because of this incidental observation, further investigation was carried out to evaluate the ...
متن کاملThe electrocardiogram associated with low levels of serum potassium.
In recent years it has become increasingly evident that a depletion of body potassium may occur in a number of conditions. The relationship of a fall in the serum potassium to the attacks of -familial periodic paralysis is well known. Potassium deficiency has also been found in infantile diarrhoea, intestinal obstruction with vomiting, sprue, renal insufficiency, diabetic coma, Addison's diseas...
متن کاملA clinical correlative study of the electrocardiogram in electrolyte imbalance.
IN ELECTROLYTE imbalance the failure of the electrocardiogram to correlate with clinical and laboratory findings may result in both diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas. Several authors 14 in particular have stressed the lack of conformity of electrocardiographic manifestations with the serum levels of potassium. This disparity has been attributed to the presence of electrocardiographic alterati...
متن کامل