Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
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 Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mazarelo, F.
Right arrow Articles by Donaldson, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
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   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Lessons to be learned: a case study approach: Pseudohyperkalaemia due to thrombocytosis in a case of tubo-ovarian abscess

F. Mazarelo

Department of Surgery, Crawley Hospital, Crawley, West Sussex

D. Donaldson

Consultant Chemical Pathologist, East Surrey Hospital, Redhill, Surrey and Crawley Hospital, Crawley, West Sussex

The case described here is that of a 48-year-old lady who presented with abdominal pain and fever; at a later stage she was found to have hyperkalaemia of uncertain origin. Blood examination revealed there to be marked elevation of the platelets (thrombocytosis) on some occasions. It was then realised that there was correlation between the platelet levels and serum potassium values. During the clotting process the release of potassium from the increased number of platelets caused the serum potassium to be elevated on account of an in vitro effect. The important point is that the raised serum potassium levels were not due to an in vivo phenomenon and, therefore, the patient did not need treatment for this; however, the presence of thrombocytosis was itself a clue to the diagnosis- which was eventually recognised as being due to an infection. At operation a tubo-ovarian abscess was discovered to be the cause of the problem.

Key Words: Hyperkalaemia (in vitro) • platelets • pseudohyperkalaemia • thrombocytosis • tubo-ovarian abscess

The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, Vol. 119, No. 3, 196-199 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/146642409911900311
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   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?