Potassium is the principle intracellular ion, and its concentration and gradients greatly influence the electrical activity of excitable membranes. Because anaesthesia is so intimately involved with electrically active cells, potassium concentrations in surgical patients have received considerable attention in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. With the ongoing evolution in the indication...

The combination of an aldosterone receptor antagonist added to an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor has been demonstrated to reduce cardiovascular and renal end points in hypertensive humans but can produce hyperkalemia in the common clinical setting of impaired renal function. We investigated the effects of dual therapy on acute and chronic potassium handling in hypertensive humans with ...

It has been clearly established that mammalian renal tubules can secrete potassium. However, it has not been shown in mammals under physiologic conditions what proportion of the urinary potassium is derived from the filtered potassium and what proportion from secreted potassium. In experiments designed to study the various factors which influence potassium excretion it has sometimes been assume...

backgrounds and aims: stroke incidence rate has increased during the past 2 decades. the question of whether calcium, chloride, potassium, sodium levels are associated with stroke has remained controversial. the present study aimed to evaluate the serum levels of potassium, sodium, calcium, and chloride within stroke patients. materials and methods: the study participants consisted of 53 cconse...

Potassium is a macronutrient that is crucial for healthy plant growth. Potassium availability, however, is often limited in agricultural fields and thus crop yields and quality are reduced. Therefore, improving the efficiency of potassium uptake and transport, as well as its utilization, in plants is important for agricultural sustainability. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Controlling serum potassium is an important goal in maintenance hemodialysis patients. We examined the achievement of potassium balance through hemodialysis treatments and the associated fluctuations in serum potassium. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A 3-yr (July 2001 to June 2004) cohort of 81,013 maintenance hemodialysis patients from all DaVita dial...

Kv7.1 (KCNQ1) channels are regulators of several physiological processes including vasodilatation, repolarization of cardiomyocytes, and control of secretory processes. A number of Kv7.1 pore mutants are sensitive to extracellular potassium. We hypothesized that extracellular potassium also modulates wild-type Kv7.1 channels. The Kv7.1 currents were measured in Xenopus laevis oocytes at differe...

BACKGROUND Healthy cows consume large amounts of potassium and a sudden loss in appetite can lead to hypokalemia. The routine method to evaluate potassium homeostasis is the measurement of the extracellular potassium in plasma or serum, but this does not provide information about the intracellular potassium pool. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES To evaluate potassium homeostasis by comparing the extrace...

Total body potassium determined by whole-body monitoring and exchangeable body potassium estimated with (43)K were measured simultaneously in 12 patients with stable chronic renal failure. Values for the exchangeable potassium were obtained after equilibration periods of 24, 48, and 64 hours. The exchangeable body potassium, expressed as a percentage of the total body potassium (mean +/- S.E. o...

The stationary intracellular potassium concentration in E. coli B 525 has been studied as a function of the extracellular potassium and sodium concentrations. The ratio of extracellular to intracellular potassium concentration is shown to be a linear function of the extracellular potassium concentration if the extracellular sodium concentration is low (20 mmoles/1). In the case of high sodium c...