Hypokalemia causes arrhythmia, take care of your body and treat it early

Potassium is an indispensable trace element for our body. If we lack potassium, it will cause many diseases, the most common of which is hypokalemia. Hypokalemia needs to be treated in time, otherwise it will easily cause arrhythmia and even endanger life safety in severe cases.

1. Potassium ions are an important substance for maintaining heart function, and hypokalemia can easily induce arrhythmia. When the potassium ion concentration outside the cell or in the blood decreases, the potassium concentration difference between the inside and outside of the cell membrane increases and the potassium permeability of the membrane decreases. In hypokalemia, myocardial excitability increases, automaticity increases, and conductivity decreases.

2. When the potassium concentration difference between inside and outside of myocardial cells increases, the potassium permeability of the membrane decreases, the outflow of potassium ions decreases, and the resting potential of myocardial cells decreases. As the membrane potential decreases and approaches the threshold potential, the excitability of myocardial cells increases. At the same time, the effect of relative sodium ion influx is weakened, which accelerates the rate of automatic depolarization of myocardial cells during diastole, shortens the time from the diastolic potential after repolarization to the threshold potential, and increases the autonomy of myocardial cells. And because the resting potential is lowered, the influx of sodium ions and the speed and amplitude of depolarization are reduced, thereby slowing down the conduction of excitation.

3. It can be seen that hypokalemia changes the permeability of sodium and potassium ion channels on myocardial cells, which increases myocardial excitability, increases autonomy, and reduces conductivity, making it easy to form excitation reentry and induce arrhythmia.

No matter what kind of disease it is and what symptoms it has in the early stage, we need to take care of our health in time. If we are careful, we will find that once similar symptoms occur, we need to go to the hospital immediately. It cannot be ignored and must be taken seriously, because any minor illness may cause a major illness. I hope everyone is happy and healthy.