Total body potassium and nutritional status.

A method for the indirect measurement of Ke is described. It is accurate, safe, and simple to perform in the clinical setting, and provides quantitative information regarding both the extracellular supporting component of body composition and the body cell. As a result, this technique was applied to quantitatively assess the nutritional status of several groups of surgical patients. A marked contraction of the body cell mass, as indicated by a significant decrease in Ke, was recorded in a group of patients in a chronic catabolic state. The decrease in Ke was accompanied by a reciprocal expansion of the extracellular supporting component of body composition. Thus, in these patients, there was a large increase in the Nae/Ke ratio. Similar changes, which however were much smaller in magnitude, were also observed following a major abdominal operation in a group of patients whose postoperative intravenous fluids contained glucose. In contrast, in a second similar group of patients, the above changes in Nae/Ke were avoided, and postoperative protein sparing was achieved, by avoiding intravenous glucose in the postoperativeperiod and infusing instead solutions containing amino acids. Finally, data were presented which indicates that the effect of a chronic catabolic state on both Nae and Ke can be prevented by administering intravenous hyperalimentation, provided that the total calories infused exceeded 50 cal per kg per day.