BACKGROUND Potassium depletion is common in hospitalized patients and can cause serious complications such as cardiac arrhythmias. In the intensive care unit (ICU) the majority of patients require potassium suppletion. However, there are no data regarding the optimal control target in critically ill patients. After open-heart surgery, patients have a strongly increased risk of atrial fibrillati...

BACKGROUND Abnormal serum potassium is associated with an increased risk of mortality in dialysis patients. However, the impacts of serum potassium levels on short- and long-term mortality and association of potassium variability with death in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients are uncertain. METHODS We examined mortality-predictability of serum potassium at baseline and its variability in PD ...

PREVIOUS studies " have shown that a specific depressor response occurs in normotensive and hypertensive rats following deprivation of dietary potassium. Cortisone restores the lowered blood pressures of such potassium-deficient rats to their initial normotensive' 6 or hypertensive levels. Although a similar depressor response occurs in human subjects, when fed a potassium-deficient diet and in...

A flow injection system for the potassium speciation in fortified wines, using two detectors placed in series, is described. The free, or ionized form, is monitored in a tubular-shaped potassium ion-selective electrode, and the total potassium content in a flame emission spectrometer used as end-of-line detector. Potassium determinations can be carried out in a linear range from 300 to 2000 mg ...

1. Exchangeable potassium, sulphate space and intracellular fluid have been determined in eight normal males and in seven uraemic male patients on a regime of twice weekly 8 h dialysis. 2. Intracellular water was more closely correlated with exchangeable potassium than were body weight or lean body mass. 3. There was no correlation between exchangeable potassium and plasma or erythrocyte potass...

Hypokalemia can result from an absence of cellular redistribution accompanied by low serum potassium levels, which can be secondary to inadequate dietary intake, external losses (for example, through the gut or skin), or renal losses. However, low serum potassium secondary to low potassium ingestion usually occurs after an extended period of low oral potassium intake. Also, increased renal pota...

One hour after administration of potassium chloride to potassium-deficient rats, the depressed peripheral vascular response to pressor substances was significantly elevated. Administration of potassium chloride to potassium-deficient rats also returned to higher levels the lowered blood pressure of previously normotensive, as well as hypertensive rats. It appears that the depressor effect of po...

The release of potassium from platelets is a well-known cause of pseudohyperkalemia in thrombocytosis. In predicting the magnitude of pseudohyperkalemia associated with thrombocytosis, previous investigations considered only the amount of potassium released from platelets during blood clotting, although the increment in serum potassium during blood clotting depends on the quantity of potassium ...

1. The relations between the concentration of plasma uric acid and urinary excretion of aldosterone, sodium and potassium, were studied in ten healthy males on a diet containing 160 mmol of sodium and 90 mmol of potassium per day. 2. Plasma uric acid correlated positively with aldosterone excretion and this correlation was statistically independent of sodium and potassium excretion. 3. Plasma u...

One hour after administration of potassium chloride to potassium-deficient rats, the depressed peripheral vascular response to pressor substances was significantly elevated. Administration of potassium chloride to potassium-deficient rats also returned to higher levels the lowered blood pressure of previously normotensive, as well as hypertensive rats. It appears that the depressor effect of po...