hazzadis

Hi littlebear23, I know that high potassium levels can kill people. But i also now that Acute increase in osmolality, such as hyperglycemia, causes potassium to exit cells and then increases the level of potassium in the blood stream. So i was thinking along those lines that if you treat the hyperglycemia first it will reduce the levels of potassium being released from the cells. Also i guess i should of said that his potassium level is only 6mmol/l and i believe this is only a slight increase and thats why i thought that i would treat the hyperglycemia first. Thanks for your input and i will do some more research as i know i need to. And thanks to david nelson as well for your input i will look into that as well.

I am doing an assignment and I am a little stuck on the question. I have a case study and Mr. Smith has five clinical problems: Dehydration Tachycardia Decreased Level of consciousness Hyperglycaemia Hyperkalemia Our question is out of the five problems Mr. Smith has which one do you believe requires the highest priority and why. I Defined them all as follows... Definitions of the five clinical problems Mr. Smith has: Dehydration is the loss of water and salts essential for normal body function. Tachycardia is abnormally rapid heart rate Decreased level of consciousness Hyperglycaemia: High levels of free sugar in the blood. Hyperkalemia: High levels of potassium in the blood Now I know this isn't much info as we are not given much ourselves. They are all interrelated and all of them can cause most of the same Five symptoms he has. I was thinking that the first one to do was hyperglycemia, due to the fact that he has altered consciousness and that insulin is required to move glucose in and out of cells. I read a journal article that stated hyperglycemia can cause hyperkalemia. Then I asked some friends at University and they told me they where doing dehydration first. So I am a little lost any help or just pointing me to a journal article would be great thanks guys.