Articles on Medical Diseases and Conditions

Hypernatremia is much less common than hyponatremia. It is usually produced by a severe water deficit that is considerably greater than the sodium deficit and is most often accompanied by dehydration (see the box on this page). The water deficit can be due to severe water deprivation, severe hypotonic fluid loss (renal or nonrenal) without […]

The most frequent electrolyte abnormalities, both clinically and as reflected in abnormal laboratory values, involve sodium. This is true because sodium is the most important cation of the body, both from a quantitative standpoint and because of its influence in maintaining electric neutrality. The most common causes of low or high serum sodium values are […]