The 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 disease with overdosage of desoxycorticosterone acetate, and in patients in whom the potassium intake has been low over a long period. Abnormalities in the electrocardiogram have been reported in each of the above conditions when the serum potassium has been at a low level. These abnormalities have been found mainly in the S-T segment, the T wave, and the Q-T interval. Electrocardiograms of three cases with low serum potassium are presented in this paper; in two of them it remained low over long periods and many tracings were obtained,