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Table 2 Cardiac events within the first 48 h by potassium level at admission

From: Influence of dyskalemia at admission and early dyskalemia correction on survival and cardiac events of critically ill patients

Cardiac events

Serious hypokalemia K+ < 2.5 mmol/L

N = 120

Moderate hypokalemia 2.5 ≤ K+ < 3 mmol/L

N = 382

Mild hypokalemia 3 ≤ K+ < 3.5 mmol/L

N = 1606

No dyskalemia 3.5 ≤ K+ ≤ 5 mmol/L

N = 8537

Mild hyperkalemia 5 < K+ ≤ 6 mmol/L

N = 1036

Moderate hyperkalemia 6 < K+ ≤ 7 mmol/L

N = 306

Serious hyperkalemia K+ > 7 mmol/L

N = 103

p value*

External electric shock

0 (0)

6 (1.6)

8 (0.5)

71 (0.8)

13 (1.3)

0 (0)

3 (2.9)

0.01

Cardiac arrest

1 (0.8)

14 (3.7)

23 (1.4)

132 (1.5)

31 (3)

13 (4.2)

6 (5.8)

< 0.01

Myocardial infarction

1 (0.8)

1 (0.3)

4 (0.2)

21 (0.2)

5 (0.5)

2 (0.7)

0 (0)

0.54

Minimal heart rate < 40 bpm

10 (8.3)

27 (7.1)

79 (4.9)

333 (3.9)

79 (7.6)

40 (13.1)

17 (16.5)

< 0.01

Ventricular arrhythmia

10 (8.3)

43 (11.3)

103 (6.4)

420 (4.9)

73 (7)

31 (10.1)

14 (13.6)

< 0.01

Supra-ventricular arrhythmia

6 (5)

30 (7.9)

105 (6.5)

680 (8)

109 (10.5)

31 (10.1)

7 (6.8)

< 0.01

Unspecified arrhythmia

0 (0)

1 (0.3)

8 (0.5)

35 (0.4)

4 (0.4)

1 (0.3)

0 (0)

0.96

Atrioventricular block

0 (0)

0 (0)

2 (0.1)

1 (0)

0 (0)

0 (0)

0 (0)

0.28

Total

20 (16.7)

87 (22.8)

267 (16.6)

1327 (15.5)

239 (23.1)

83 (27.1)

30 (29.1)

< 0.01

  1. Cardiac event was achieved if a patient experiment at least one cardiac event in the first 2 days. Results are expressed in number of patients (n) and percentage (%)
  2. *Comparison across serum potassium concentration categories at ICU admission