Isotopic Studies of Potassium Metabolism in Diabetes 12

Potassium status of patients with cirrhosis.

“…Dietary intake of potassium, gastrointestinal losses, hyperaldosteronism, renal tubular damage, and possibly a diuretic effect of alcohol may all be implicated, and these factors are the subject of further study. It has been suggested that patients with severe liver disease are unable to retain potassium supplements (Aikawa et al, 1953;Heinemann and Emirgil, 1960; but in our study both compensated and decompensated patients with potassium depletion (with one exception) failed to attain a normal whole body potassium within six months. The lack of response to treatment with potassium supplements may to a certain extent be explained by the concurrent use of diuretics in half the cases, but, even so, potassium-losing diuretics were used in conjunction with potassium-sparing diuretics.…”

“…Several factors including diet, gastrointestinal losses, and diuretic treatment may affect adversely the potassium status of cirrhotic patients. Studies using exchangeable potassium (42K) have shown that cirrhotics, even without oedema or ascites, may be depleted of total body potassium in the presence of a normal serum potassium (Aikawa et al, 1953;Burrows et al, 1953). Other workers have also concluded that serum potassium determinations are poor indicators of body potassium stores in patients with cirrhosis (Heinemann and Emirgil, 1960;Case et al, 1965).…”

“…While exchageable potassium is often decreased in cirrhotics (Aikawa et al, 1953;Kukral et al, 1969), this is not an invariable finding and it is not clear whether patients with different types of cirrhosis are affected to the same extent. Casey et al (1961) reported that the more severe the liver disease the lower the body potassium stores, and it has been suggested that patients with severely impaired liver function may be unable to retain potassium supplements (Aikawa et al, 1953;Heinemann and Emirgil, 1960;Case et al, 1965).…”

“…Casey et al (1961) reported that the more severe the liver disease the lower the body potassium stores, and it has been suggested that patients with severely impaired liver function may be unable to retain potassium supplements (Aikawa et al, 1953;Heinemann and Emirgil, 1960;Case et al, 1965).…”

Studies on Whole-body Potassium in Non-ketoacidotic Diabetics Before and After Treatment

“…Metabolic balance studies have shown that patients in diabetic ketoacidosis may be severely depleted of potassium (Danowski et al, 1949;Nabarro et al, 1952 (Aikawa et al, 1953;Telfer, 1966), a technique which has limitations not only because it is time consuming but also because it involves exposure of the subject to radiation. Determination of the naturally occurring radioactive isotope of potassium-40 with the whole-body counter has certain advantages over both balance studies and exchangeable potassium techniques.…”