At a Glance

Why Get Tested?

To observe a trouble with your torso's electrolyte balance

When To Get Tested?

As part of routine health screening or when your wellness care practitioner suspects that you have an imbalance of one of the electrolytes (usually sodium or potassium) or an acid-base imbalance

Sample Required?

A blood sample drawn from a vein in your arm

Test Preparation Needed?

None

You may be able to find your exam results on your laboratory's website or patient portal. However, you lot are currently at Testing.com. You may have been directed here past your lab'south website in lodge to provide you lot with background information about the examination(s) you lot had performed. Yous will need to return to your lab'due south website or portal, or contact your healthcare practitioner in order to obtain your test results.

Testing.com is an accolade-winning patient pedagogy website offer information on laboratory tests. The content on the site, which has been reviewed by laboratory scientists and other medical professionals, provides general explanations of what results might mean for each test listed on the site, such as what a high or low value might advise to your healthcare practitioner well-nigh your wellness or medical status.

The reference ranges for your tests tin be found on your laboratory study. They are typically found to the right of your results.

If you practise not accept your lab report, consult your healthcare provider or the laboratory that performed the test(due south) to obtain the reference range.

Laboratory examination results are non meaningful past themselves. Their meaning comes from comparing to reference ranges. Reference ranges are the values expected for a good for you person. They are sometimes called "normal" values. By comparing your examination results with reference values, you and your healthcare provider can see if any of your exam results fall outside the range of expected values. Values that are outside expected ranges tin provide clues to help identify possible conditions or diseases.

While accurateness of laboratory testing has significantly evolved over the by few decades, some lab-to-lab variability tin occur due to differences in testing equipment, chemical reagents, and techniques. This is a reason why so few reference ranges are provided on this site. It is of import to know that you lot must apply the range supplied past the laboratory that performed your test to evaluate whether your results are "within normal limits."

For more than information, please read the commodity Reference Ranges and What They Mean.

What is being tested?

Electrolytes are minerals that are found in trunk tissues and claret in the class of dissolved salts. As electrically charged particles, electrolytes assist move nutrients into and wastes out of the torso's cells, maintain a good for you h2o balance, and help stabilize the body's acid/base (pH) level.

The electrolyte console measures the blood levels of the main electrolytes in the body:

  • Sodium—most of the trunk's sodium is establish in the fluid outside of the trunk'due south cells, where it helps to regulate the corporeality of water in the body.
  • Potassium—this electrolyte is found mainly inside the trunk'south cells. A modest but vital amount of potassium is found in the plasma, the liquid portion of the claret. Potassium plays an important function in regulating musculus contraction. Monitoring potassium is of import every bit small changes in the potassium level tin bear upon the eye's rhythm and ability to contract.
  • Chloride—this electrolyte moves in and out of the cells to assistance maintain electric neutrality (concentrations of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions must be equal) and its level usually mirrors that of sodium. Due to its shut association with sodium, chloride likewise helps to regulate the distribution of water in the body.
  • Bicarbonate—the main task of bicarbonate (or full COii, an estimate of bicarbonate), which is released and reabsorbed past the kidneys, is to assist maintain a stable pH level (acid-base balance) and, secondarily, to help maintain electric neutrality. Bicarbonate also plays an important part in the transport of COtwo: much of the CO2 produced by the body's tissues is transported in the blood every bit bicarbonate to the lungs, where information technology is exhaled.

The foods you eat and the fluids you lot drinkable provide the sodium, potassium, and chloride your body needs. The kidneys help maintain proper levels by reabsorption or by elimination into the urine. The lungs provide oxygen and regulate COtwo. The CO2 is produced past the body and is in balance with bicarbonate. The overall balance of these chemicals is an indication of the functional well-being of several basic body functions. They are important in maintaining a broad range of body functions, including heart and skeletal muscle contraction and nervus signaling.

Whatever affliction or condition that affects the amount of fluid in the trunk, such as dehydration, or affects the lungs, kidneys, metabolism, or breathing has the potential to crusade a fluid, electrolyte, or pH imbalance (acidosis or alkalosis). Normal pH must be maintained inside a narrow range of 7.35-7.45 and electrolytes must be in rest to ensure the proper functioning of metabolic processes and the delivery of the right amount of oxygen to tissues.

A related "test" is the anion gap, which is a value calculated using the results of an electrolyte panel. It reflects the difference between the positively charged ions (called cations) and the negatively charged ions (called anions). An aberrant anion gap is non-specific—it does not diagnose a specific disease or illness—simply it can suggest certain kinds of metabolic or respiratory disorders or the presence of toxic substances.

While sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate are commonly measured together as the electrolyte panel, they can also each be ordered individually for diagnosis/monitoring of weather condition that touch specific electrolytes. The body also contains other electrolytes that are non part of the "electrolyte panel" but may also be ordered by your health intendance practitioner. These include: calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), and phosphate (PO4 iii-).

Common Questions

How is the test used?

The electrolyte panel is used to identify an electrolyte, fluid, or pH imbalance (acidosis or alkalosis). It is frequently ordered as part of a routine health examination. It may exist ordered by itself or as a component of a basic metabolic console (BMP) or a comprehensive metabolic console (CMP). These panels can include other tests such as BUN, creatinine, and glucose.

Electrolyte measurements may be used to help investigate conditions that crusade electrolyte imbalances such as dehydration, kidney disease, lung diseases, or heart conditions. A series of electrolyte panels may too be used to monitor treatment of the condition causing the imbalance.

Since electrolyte and acid-base imbalances can exist present with a wide variety of acute and chronic illnesses, the electrolyte panel is frequently used to evaluate patients who seek medical care in the emergency room besides equally hospitalized patients.

The results for an electrolyte panel may also include a calculation for anion gap that can exist used to help detect disorders or the presence of toxic substances (meet below).

If you lot have an imbalance of a unmarried electrolyte, such as sodium or potassium, your healthcare practitioner may order repeat testing of that individual electrolyte, monitoring the imbalance until information technology resolves. If yous accept an acid-base of operations imbalance, your health care practitioner may besides order tests for blood gases, which mensurate the pH and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in an arterial claret sample, to help evaluate the severity of the imbalance and monitor its response to handling.

When is it ordered?

An electrolyte panel may exist ordered as office of a routine wellness exam, every bit recommended by your wellness care practitioner. Information technology may also be ordered as a diagnostic help when you lot have signs and symptoms, such as:

  • Fluid accumulation (edema)
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Weakness
  • Confusion
  • Irregular heart beat (cardiac arrhythmias)

It is frequently ordered as part of an evaluation when you lot have an acute or chronic illness and at regular intervals when yous accept a disease or condition or is taking a medication that can cause an electrolyte imbalance. Electrolyte tests are unremarkably ordered at regular intervals to monitor treatment of sure conditions, including high blood pressure (hypertension), heart failure, lung diseases, liver disease and kidney disease.

What does the test upshot hateful?

High or low electrolyte levels tin can be acquired by several conditions and diseases. Generally, they are affected by how much is consumed in the diet and absorbed by the body, the corporeality of water in your torso, and the amount eliminated by the kidneys. Electrolyte levels are also affected by some hormones such as aldosterone, which conserves sodium and promotes the elimination of potassium, and natriuretic peptides, which increase elimination of sodium by the kidneys.

Electrolyte levels tin be afflicted by changes in the amount of h2o in your torso. For example:

  • If your kidneys are not functioning properly (i.east., kidney affliction), you lot may retain excess fluid. This results in a dilution effect on sodium and chloride then that they fall below normal levels.
  • On the other manus, if you feel astringent fluid loss (aridity), you may testify an increase in potassium, sodium, and chloride levels.

Some atmospheric condition such as heart disease and diabetes may also impact the fluid and electrolytes residuum in your torso and cause aberrant levels of electrolytes. Several other conditions tin can cause electrolyte and pH imbalances.

Knowing which electrolytes are out of balance can help your healthcare practitioner determine the underlying cause and make decisions almost treatment to restore proper residue. Left untreated, an electrolyte imbalance can lead to various problems, including dizziness, cramps, irregular heartbeat, and mayhap death.

Run into the private test articles for additional information on what results might mean:

  • Sodium
  • Potassium
  • Chloride
  • Bicarbonate

Ane of the results from my electrolyte console is slightly out of range. What does this mean?

The results of your electrolyte panel are interpreted past your health care practitioner within the context of other tests that you have had done as well as other factors, such every bit your medical history. A single result that is slightly loftier or low may or may not have medical significance. There are several reasons why a examination upshot may differ on different days and why it may fall exterior a designated reference range.

  • Biological variability (different results in the same person at unlike times): If a healthcare practitioner runs the same test on you on several different occasions, in that location is a expert chance that one consequence will autumn outside a reference range even though you lot are in good health. For biological reasons, your values can vary from day to day.
  • Individual variability (differences in results between different people): References ranges are usually established by collecting results from a large population and determining from the data an expected boilerplate (hateful) result and expected differences from that boilerplate (standard divergence). There are individuals who are good for you but whose tests results, which are normal for them, do non always fall within the expected range of the overall population.

So, a test value that falls outside of the established reference range may mean nothing meaning. By and large, this is the case when the exam value is just slightly college or lower than the reference range and is why a healthcare practitioner may echo a test on y'all and why the practitioner may look at results from prior times when you had the same test performed.

However, a result outside the range may indicate a problem and warrant further investigation. Your wellness intendance practitioner volition evaluate your test results in the context of your medical history, physical exam, and other relevant factors to determine whether a result that falls outside of the reference range ways something significant for you.

What is anion gap?

Anion gap (AG or AGAP) is a value calculated using the results of an electrolyte console. It is used to assistance distinguish between anion-gap and non-anion-gap metabolic acidosis. Acidosis refers to an excess of acrid in the body; this can disturb many cell functions and should be recognized as quickly as possible, when present. The anion gap is frequently used in the hospital and/or emergency room setting to help diagnose and monitor acutely ill patients. If anion-gap metabolic acidosis is identified, the AG may be used to assist monitor the effectiveness of treatment and the underlying condition.

Specifically, the anion gap evaluates the departure between measured and unmeasured electrical particles (ions or electrolytes) in the fluid portion of the claret. According to the principle of electrical neutrality, the number of positive ions (cations) and negative ions (anions) should be equal. However, non all ions are routinely measured. The calculated AG result represents the unmeasured ions and primarily consists of anions, hence the proper name "anion gap." The about commonly used formula is:

Anion Gap (AG) = Sodium – (Chloride + Bicarbonate [full CO2])

However, there are other AG formulas, so reference ranges are not interchangeable. Each laboratory formula will have an established normal range that should be referenced.

The anion gap is non-specific. Information technology is increased when the number of unmeasured anions increases, indicating a state of anion-gap metabolic acidosis, merely it does not tell the healthcare practitioner what is causing the imbalance. The metabolic acidosis must be treated to restore the acid/base balance, merely the underlying status must also be identified and treated. Causes can include uncontrolled diabetes, starvation, kidney damage, and ingestion of potentially toxic substances such equally antifreeze, excessive amounts of aspirin (salicylates), or methanol. A low anion gap can likewise occur; this is near commonly seen when albumin (an anion as well every bit a protein) is low, while immunoglobulins (cations as well as proteins) are increased.

What is the treatment for an electrolyte imbalance?

Handling depends on which electrolyte(s) is out of balance and the extent of that alter. Treatment normally involves managing the imbalance while identifying and addressing the underlying cause(due south) of the imbalance and providing whatever support is necessary to the afflicted person.

Is there anything else I should know?

Certain drugs, such as anabolic steroids, corticosteroids, laxatives, cough medicines, and oral contraceptives, may cause increased levels of sodium. Other drugs, such every bit diuretics, carbamazepine, and tricyclic antidepressants, may crusade decreased levels of sodium.

Drugs that affect sodium blood levels will likewise crusade changes in chloride. Taking essentially more than than the recommended dosage of antacids can too cause low chloride levels.

Some drugs may increase bicarbonate (total CO2) levels. These include, among others, fludrocortisone, barbiturates, hydrocortisone, loop diuretics, and steroids. Drugs that may decrease bicarbonate (full CO2) levels include methicillin, nitrofurantoin, tetracycline, thiazide diuretics, and triamterene.

Some diuretics, which may be used for people with disorders such as high blood pressure or kidney disease, tend to lower potassium levels to dangerously depression levels. To avoid this problem, a healthcare practitioner may prescribe a potassium-sparing diuretic.

A non-physiological crusade of a high potassium level in a patient sample is leakage from the claret cells if the sample is not handled carefully or is delayed in transport to the lab. If a significant corporeality of potassium leaks from cells, it can contribute to a falsely high exam result. When a health care practitioner suspects that a potassium result is non consistent with a patient'due south condition, the test for potassium may be repeated.

Related Content

View Sources

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