Description

A normal adult weighing about 154 lbs (70 kg) has about 3.6 moles of potassium ions in his or her body. Most of this potassium (about 98%) occurs inside various cells and organs, where normal concentration are about 150 mM. Blood serum concentrations are much lower—only about 0.4% of the body’s potassium is found in blood serum. As noted above, hypokalemia can be caused by the sudden uptake of potassium ions from the bloodstream by muscle or other organs or by an overall depletion of the body’s potassium. Hypokalemia due to overall depletion tends to be a chronic phenomenon, while hypokalemia due to a shift in location tends to be a temporary disorder.