Why the study?
Do patients with severe valvular heart disease have altered exchangeable sodium and potassium levels compared to normal subjects?
Do patients with severe valvular heart disease have altered exchangeable sodium and potassium levels compared to normal subjects?
Potassium depletion in severe valvular heart disease is primarily due to reduced cell mass rather than diuretic therapy or intracellular concentration changes.
May reflect reduced cell mass in severe valvular disease; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Exchangeable sodium and potassium, total body water, and sulphate space were measured in 42 patients with severe valvular heart disease who were free of oedema. Compared with normal subjects of the same height, no increase in exchangeable sodium was found but a mean potassium depletion of 27% was shown. This depletion was not related to diuretic therapy, and no relationship between the degree of depletion and postoperative arrhythmias was found. It is concluded that the major cause of the low exchangeable potassium is the reduction in cell mass that occurs in chronic heart disease, and that there is no significant fall in the intracellular potassium concentration.
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White et al. (1969) studied this question.
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