What will happen to potassium if the sample is hemolyzed?

Of all routine blood tests plasma/serum potassium measurement is one of the most sensitive to the effect of hemolysis because red-cell potassium concentration is so much higher than that of plasma (approximately 20 times higher); hemolysis causes a spuriously high plasma potassium concentration.

Can a hemolyzed blood sample cause high potassium?

Abstract. Background: In the emergency department (ED), hyperkalemia in the presence of hemolysis is common. Elevated hemolyzed potassium levels are often repeated by emergency physicians to confirm pseudohyperkalemia and to exclude a life-threatening true hyperkalemia.

What is elevated in a hemolyzed blood sample?

Hemolysis may falsely increase the following analytes: AST, alanine transaminase (ALT), LDH, total bilirubin, glucose, calcium, phosphorus, total protein, albumin, magnesium, amylase, lipase, creatine kinase (CK), iron, hemoglobin, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC).

How does hemolysis affect electrolytes?

Moderate hemolysis significantly increased plasma phosphorus levels. Marked hemolysis significantly increased plasma values of potassium, phosphorus, total protein, and aspartate aminotransferase.

What happens when blood hemolyzed?

“Hemo” means blood, of course; “lysis” means to rupture or the destruction of cells. So hemolysis is literally the destruction of blood cells, specifically red blood cells. When red cells rupture, they spill their contents, mostly hemoglobin, into their surroundings.

What causes hemolyzed potassium?

The most common cause of genuinely high potassium (hyperkalemia) is related to your kidneys, such as: Acute kidney failure. Chronic kidney disease.

Why are hemolyzed specimens unacceptable for testing?

When a sample is hemolyzed, the red cells release their contents into the serum/plasma, potentially diluting every analyte the lab might test in the sample.

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