hyperkalemia

[hahy-per-kuh-lee-mee-uh]

noun

Pathology.

1. an abnormally high concentration of potassium in the blood.

Other Word Forms

• hyperkalemic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of hyperkalemia¹

1945–50; hyper- + New Latin kal ( ium ) potassium ( alkali, -ium ) + -emia

Example Sentences

Our current priority is to get people being managed for hypertension to use potassium-enriched salt because health-care providers can advise against its use in people at risk of hyperkalemia.

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A high level of potassium in the blood, or hyperkalemia, causes cardiac arrest, and when Yanagihara injected mice with high doses of venom, their hearts quickly stopped.

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Because people sometimes have hyperkalemia with a normal ECG, the KardiaBand won’t catch hyperkalemia for everyone, says William J. Brady, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

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AliveCor worked with the Mayo Clinic to develop a new algorithm for the KardiaBand that can analyze EKG data and detect whether the user has hyperkalemia.

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Potassium is removed from the body by the kidneys, so anything that compromises kidney function can lead to hyperkalemia.

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