so i've been studying fluids and electrolyte chapter and so far it's been good. but when the textbook stated s/s for certain fluid & electrolyte balance, i got a bit stuck because i don't know the reason behind what's going on.
so i have a few questions here:
1) hypotonic dehydration (electrolyte loss exceeds water loss) might be caused by chronic illness, excessive fluid replacement (hypotonic), renal failure & chronic malnutrition. i don't have problem understanding the last 3 causes, but what kinda chronic illness can cause hypotonic dehydration? my guess would be colon cancer (cause it will have lesser absorption of electrolytes?). I can't think bout other chronic illnesses that lead to electrolyte loss. can it be liver dz/cancer because of altered in metabolism?
2) assessment for hypertonic dehydration (water loss exceeds electrolyte loss) are hyperactive deep tendon reflexes and pitting edema. i have no clue how hyperactive DTR r/t hypertonic dehydration. less water in the body makes reflex more active, but how? or maybe because of too much electrolytes (compares to water) makes nerve impulse travels faster?
3) "fluid volume excess causes visual disturbances, skeletal muscle weakness, and paresthesias" again, does this have to do with the nerve impulse distribution to those parts of the body?
4) can someone explain how hyperglycemia and CHF causes hyponatremia? It's stated that both dz cause "dilution of serum sodium"...how does too much glucose in the body cause removal of sodium? as for CHF, does kidneys retain water and sodium to compensate with decrease cardiac output?
as i was searching for answers, i found this cool chart from wikipedia about hyponatremia, so hope this help other students too. -->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:H...mia_Causes.png
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