Frightening Potassium Deficiency Story

A friend of my wife and I had a knee operation seven weeks ago, and developed an infection. He was readmitted to the hospital, and after being released was put Nafcillan, an intravenous anti-biotic, which he has been on for the past six weeks and which has caused some muscle cramping. Yesterday morning he went to work and collapsed in his office. He was taken to the hospital with some type of arrhythmia (his wife didn't know what type, though it sounds like V tach to me because of what happened subsequently). His potassium lvel was 2.7 and he was immediately given intravenous K and Mag. This infusion calmed the heart for a bit, but shortly thereafter the arrhythmia returned with abandon causing his heart to reach such a high rate that it stopped, flatlined. He was revived within a minute, and his potassium levels have been raised to 4.5, so he seems to be out of the woods. What a story though,-----keep tatking that magenesium and potassium---they did an echo and he was found to have a very sound heart.

Steve

Antibiotics - The use of certain Antibiotics can prove to be harmful and lead to many harmful effects. Hypokalemia can happen if certain antibiotics are consumed frequently. These antibiotics include nafcillin, penicillin, foscarnet etc.

Steve: I googled and copied the above, your friend was taking Nafcillin and that can cause hypokalemia---it is just as dangerous to take too much potassium, most people don't get to such a dangerous low level unless there is a reason like the above or diarrhea.

Liz

In addition to a direct causal effect from a drug influence such as the antibiotic used in this case or diuretics...one of several reasons for low potassium levels can relate to renal dysfunction which may go undetected until a crisis shows up... i.e, Renal Tubular Acidosis as an example:

A major consequence of classical distal RTA is a low blood potassium level. The level drops if the kidneys excrete too much potassium into urine instead of returning it to the blood supply. Because potassium helps regulate nerve and muscle health and heart rate, low levels can cause extreme weakness, irregular heartbeat, paralysis, and even death.

Other causes can be chronic kidney failure, magnesium deficiency, leukemia, Cushings disease and other adrenal disorders.
Many influences to rule out when potassium levels are consistently low and are not caused by an obvious influence such as this case with the antibiotic known to cause low potassium.

If you have to deal with afib or aflutter, you need to own a Cardymeter so that you know your Potassium levels at any time. Maximizing mag levels is fairly simple : supplement until bowel intolerance, but Potassium can be tricky when you are supplementing and eating K rich foods at the same time. For me simply quitting all wheat products(highly acidic) saved me the 1600 mg.of Potassium I was taking daily. I have since quit the supplement and my levels hover around 4.5.

Tom,

What make of cardymeter do you use (Horiba10?) and where did you buy it?

Hans

Hans, I have a Horiba Compact Ion Meter C-131, purchased from QA Supplies, price around $235. I have noticed that since I purchased mine over year ago the description now includes saliva as something that can be tested, this was not mentioned before, perhaps they now realize a sales opportunity even though they used to specify that it was not a medical device.

Thank you Tom,

Do you have any comments on the new Horiba Compact B-731 model [www.agriculturesolutions.com]

Hans

Tom,

have you tested your potassium level when having an Afib event?
I have found my level to rise.
I am having PVC's for the last couple of days and find potassium levels high and I wonder why?

Colin

Hans, from the description of the new compact meter, you do not have to calibrate for each test, however since you are given the two calibration solutions, slope and standard, I would think you could check it if you wanted to, there looks to be some adjustment feature with the three buttons. The meter still needs cleaned with deionizing solution after each use. For $110 more than the original C-131 unit, I would prefer the original, I have an extra sensor and supplies for mine and I like to do the calibration each time and the additional calibration once a month to insure accuracy.

Colin, fortunately I have not had an afib incident since my ablation to test for that scenario.