Bungarotoxin present in Bungarus caeruleus (BC) causes life threatening respiratory muscle paralysis. Deep coma and hypokalaemia have been observed in a significant proportion of patients, but the cause is unknown. We postulate the likely mechanism behind these two phenomena. We studied clinical details of two patients admitted with deep coma and performed electroencephalograms (EEG) and brain ...

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical profile of hypokalemic flaccid paralysis (HKFP) and to evaluate its causes. METHODS Fifty cases of hypokalemic flaccid paralysis (HKFP) admitted between November 2012 to October 2014 were taken up in the study. Serum potassium level < 3.5 mmol/ltr has been taken as hypokalemia. All cases were studied for spot and/or 24 hour urinary sodium / potassium, serum pot...

A 57-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with abdominal pain in the left upper quadrant. She had left hemiplegia due to an intracranial hemorrhage 5 years previously, as well as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Her blood pressure was 190/100 mmHg. Laboratory data revealed a serum creatinine level of 1.2 mg/dL and a serum potassium level of 3.4 mEq/L. Magnetic resonance imaging of the...

Result: Serum potassium concentrations were significantly decreased with the severity of arrhythmias (no arrhythmias; 4.2 ± 0.80 mmol/l, supra-ventricular; 3.8 ± 0.9 mmol/l, and ventricular arrhythmias; 3.3 ± 0.5 mmol/l, p=0.0001). The risks of supra-ventricular and ventricular arrhythmias were significantly increased by 2.4 and 8.3 fold, respectively in patients with serum potassium levels at ...

A number of metabolic insults can result in changes to the serum potassium concentration. Potassium is predominantly an intracellular cation, and it has an important role in determining the resting membrane potential of cells. Disruption of the potassium gradient across the cell membrane can result in impaired cellular functioning. This may affect a number of organs including the cardiovascular...

A 21-year-old woman was referred to our unit to elucidate the aetiology of three episodes of hypokalaemic tetraparesis that had occurred over the last 8 years. The third episode had led to emergency hospitalization for severe rhabdomyolysis (creatine phosphokinase level up to 20 000 IU/l) associated with life-threatening hypokalaemia (1.21mmol/l). On her island, the tertiary care facility in wh...

INTRODUCTION Although sodium disturbances are common in hospitalised patients, few studies have specifically investigated the epidemiology of sodium disturbances in the intensive care unit (ICU). The objectives of this study were to describe the incidence of ICU-acquired hyponatraemia and hypernatraemia and assess their effects on outcome in the ICU. METHODS We identified 8142 consecutive adu...

Simple and efficient methods for concentrating Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus and chikungunya (CHIK) virus are described. Ammonium sulfate, potassium sulfate, or alcohol was used as a precipitating agent and the precipitate was resuspended to volumes suitable for further processing and purification. The methods permitted concentration of live RVF virus and CHIK virus about 100-fold with negligib...

Namazi F., Omidi A., Abbasi S., Afsar M., Honarmand M. & Nazifi S. 2016. Starvation and refeeding in rats: effect on some parameters of energy metabolism and electrolytes and changes of hepatic tissue. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 36(Supl.1):101-105. Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. E-mail: [email protected] Regarding the importa...

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...