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Article: An opposite result.(Readers respond)(Letter to the editor)
- Article from:
- Medical Laboratory Observer
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Nelson Publishing. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the article, "Investigating elevated potassium values" (MLO, November 2006, page 24), little was presented to explain a case of pseudohyperkalemia that we experienced recently. A gel clot tube was drawn for a basic metabolic panel and a non-gel lithium heparin tube was drawn simultaneously. The potassium from the lithium heparin tube when tested on the VITROS 5,1 gave a potassium value of 8.1 mEq/L. The clot tube was then tested and gave a value of 3.5 mEq/L. We redrew the patient and got similar differences between the lithium heparin tube and the clot tube. As this patient was critically ill and was having chemistries checked every few hours, we continued drawing the ...