High potassium levels and heart

[10gingercats]

My potassium level was at 6.00 so high on Tuesday and due a second blood test tomorrow as doc. thinks this is a spurious result. he has suggested this before. Recent AF contrary to my pattern has got the cardio. nurse and cardio. interested but I am wondering how this can be dealt with as I do not want further heart problems or kidney disease as a result of this seemingly on going potassium spike. Had it last Sept. and it did drop a smidgeon after a few days but not by much. Anyone experienced this and what happened to control or cure it?

[etheral]

Many meds used for treatment of afib and heart failure can cause this. High potassium can disrupt thr efficacy od some meds and possibly cause dangerous arrythmias with others. What are you taking and what differences have you noted? Best, etheral

[10gingercats in reply to etheral]

I have just reduced one of my Bisoprolol tablets from 2'5mg to 1.25mg with cardiac nurse approval as I was sure it was causing a regular af. She agreed this is a strong posibility and is also going to talk to my cardiol. about it .But a week on Potassium is still high.My GP is possibly going to accept 6.00 as being ok but I am not happy with that as I do not want further problems with my heart. Not sure if dietary adjustments will do the trick.

[JOY2THEWORLD49]

Hi

With no supplements it must be from your food like banana.

cheri JOY. 74. (NZ)

[secondtry]

I also put some store on trends and always request and keep my blood records for 5+ yrs. How long have you been '6' and if for a long time without significant issues then maybe that is just you??

[10gingercats in reply to secondtry]

Last time it happened it was 6 months ago.This time round my afib started to appear after taking a Bisoprolol tabletonly in the morning....not at night. Cardiac nurse thought maybe linked to urine retention overnight.No known problems there . I can sometimes Sleep 7 hours and am not desparate to 'go' am. Curious to know frm our people here if this is a common occurance. Hopefully it is nothing and now I have reduced the am Bisop.(on advice) it will all calm down.Thanks for your input.

[Quivery]

A high potassium can occur when the blood sample has been drawn with some difficulty, or not treated gently in transit. The cells haemolyse (burst) releasing potassium into the blood sample - this can give a spurious result so needs repeating.

[10gingercats in reply to Quivery]

All these replies are supporting what is happening so that is reassuring the doc. and cardio. nurse are on the right track. Never had high potassium earlier in my life.

[Quilter43]

I don't know potassium link to AFib.

[Barb1]

Exceedingly high potassium levels were discovered when I was admitted to hospital for something unrelated. I was there for nearly a week, whilst they sorted it out. This was in Cyprus where they suspected the culprit was my years on Bumetanide. I was switched to Spironlactone and told to have regular blood tests in UK. This is impossible to achieve here.

[SeanJax]

you did not say anything about your kidneys function. Hyperkalemia or hypokalemia both are dangerous and the first thing we look at is the renal function in case of hyperkalemia. The next thing is the storage of blood before the analysis . Here it seems you got it after many tests so I doubt it was caused by the blood storage.