RSM logo
Annals of Clinical Biochemistry

Home Current issue Browse archive Alerts About the journal Feedback
 
This version was published on 1 November 2008
Ann Clin Biochem 2008;45:601-603
doi:10.1258/acb.2008.007241
© 2008 Association for Clinical Biochemistry

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
acb.2008.007241v1
45/6/601    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cornes, M. P
Right arrow Articles by Gama, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Short Reports

Spurious hyperkalaemia due to EDTA contamination: common and not always easy to identify

Michael P Cornes1, Clare Ford1 and Rousseau Gama1,2


1 Department of Clinical Chemistry, New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV10 0QP; 2 Research Institute, Healthcare Sciences, Wolverhampton University, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, UK


Corresponding author: Mr Michael Cornes. Email: cornesmp{at}aol.com

Background: To study the detection and prevalence of spurious hyperkalaemia due to potassium ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (kEDTA) contamination.

Methods: In a one-month prospective study, serum EDTA, zinc, calcium, magnesium concentrations and alkaline phosphatase activity were measured in samples with serum potassium ≥6.0 mmol/L.

Results: Twenty-eight out of 117 hyperkalaemic samples were contaminated with EDTA. Only serum zinc values below the reference range had 100% sensitivity for indicating EDTA contamination, but even at an optimal specificity of 89% at least 12 potentially genuine hyperkalaemic samples would be rejected.

Conclusion: Spurious hyperkalaemia due to kEDTA contamination is common. Gross kEDTA contamination is obvious by marked unexpected hyperkalaemia, hypocalcaemia, hypomagnesaemia and hypozincaemia. Spurious hyperkalaemia due to low concentrations of kEDTA contamination can only be confidently detected by measurement of serum EDTA.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?




MRI of the Whole Body

 Recent Advances in Paediatrics 25 Recent Advances in Gastroenterology 11