To: Canticle_of_Deborah
Incredible. I always suspected that guy had something to do with her medical situation. >>>>
That sounds more plausible than the potassium shortage.
Maybe one of the doctors here a FR could explain something about her condition. The original diagnosis for her heart attack was a low potassium count. I can't understand how a healthy person with no kidney disease could get such a low K count and get a severe heart attack which must have been an arrhythmia; can this be?
25 posted on
07/17/2003 1:30:06 PM PDT by
Coleus
(God is Pro Life and Straight and gave an innate predisposition for self-preservation and protection)
To: Coleus
I don't have much adult cardiac experience but that would be my guess. Potassium and other electrolyte imbalances cause irregular electrical activity in the heart. I've never heard that described as a heart attack per se. I had a nurse friend who went on the Atkins diet and her electrolytes, potassium particularly, became very depleted. Her doctors freaked.
To: Coleus
Kidney disease generally produce a high potassium counts. A lot of people exist with just barely normal potassium levels, and sudden shock or dehydration can push it lower. In terms of a heart attack, most cardiologists consider potassium to be low if below "4", even if most labs consider potassium levels normal if they run between 3.5 to 5.2.
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