Imagine you are working in the hospital as a health care professional when Brend

Question

Imagine you are working in the hospital as a health care professional when Brendon comes into the emergency department. You are asked by your superior about causes of hypokalemia. You want to look smart. Note: we have not covered hormones yet, but you should be able to find the answer and make hypokalemia make more sense. This question helps you practice the kind of thinking you need in physiology. Here’s a hint: aldosterone is a hormone that increases K+ loss (increases the amount of K+ ) in the urine. 19. You correctly tell your superior that hypokalemia can be caused by A. Addison’s disease (with below normal aldosterone secretion) B. Hyperaldosteronism or Conn’s syndrome (with above normal aldosterone secretion)

Your supervisor begins quizzing you more. She asks whether certain diuretics can cause hypokalemia. You correctly respond with A. of course! B. no, that’s ridiculous!

Explanation / Answer

1.Hypokalemia can be caused by B) Hyperaldosteronism/ Conns syndrome( with above normal aldosterone secretion)

- Severe depletion of pottassium which causes renal damage,The kidneys fail to produce concentrated urine.It leads to polyuria and polydypsia.

- Muscular weakness due to pottassium depletion.

2. Ofcourse! Diuretics can cause hypokalemia.

Loop and thiazide diuretics increase sodium reabsorbtion that is delivering of more sodium to distal segmant of distal tubule.This increases pottassium loss because increase in distal tubular sodium concentration increases aldoaterone sensitive sodium pump to increase sodium reabsorption in exchange for pottassium and hydrogen ion,which are lost in urine causing hypokalemia.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.