Re: High potassium

Claude, there is another reason why your blood may have tested high.
Potassium is tested on the serum part of your blood--the part of the
blood that does not include the cells. Did the phlebotomist have any
trouble drawing your blood? Sometimes, when the blood draw does not go
smoothly, the red blood cells get broken up in the process. Red blood
cells are full of potassium, and when their cell walls are broken, all
that potassium is released into the serum. This causes a falsely high
potassium reading. (Sometimes this can occur even if the blood draw
appeared to go smoothly too, but it happens more often on a difficult
draw.)

If the call came directly from the lab person, I would especially guess
that might be the case. In any case, when this occurs the lab person
is supposed to note on the lab report that the blood sample was
"hemolyzed" (although it sometimes gets omitted accidentally), meaning
a significant portion of the blood cells were broken. The doctor would
then know he couldn't trust the potassium result.

Michelle T2
diet & exercise
former lab tech


Claude wrote:
Loretta Eisenberg wrote:
Claude has your doctor told you you have too much potassium. If so, cut
out the walnurs or at least the portion. I take potassium supplements
so I really dont know anything about too much potassium. Your doctor
will know.

Loretta

--
In tribute to the United States of America and the State
of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and
terrorism.

Well they called me and said it was high and want to retest. Last time
it was 4.7 and no mention of it being high. I forgot what it was this
time. Maybe I ate to many high potassium things before this last blood
draw? I'll find out next week I guess.



--
Linux is just a fancy name for Windows blocker.

Claude Hopper

.

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