TOTAL BODY CHLORIDE OF CHILDREN IN POTASSIUM DEFICIENCY AND UNDER CIRCUMSTANCES OF POOR NUTRITION

Abstract

(1) The distribution of bromide has been used to measure total body chloride in children of poor nutritional status and in circumstances of potassium deficiency. (2) In malnutrition there is an increase of extracellular water and of tissue chloride, per unit weight. (3) One patient with fibrocystic disease revealed a deficit of body chloride during heat stress. (4) Children with chronic gastro enteritis and potassium deficiency receiving only glucose and saline tend to develop chloride and water retention in the extracellular compartment. It is not known whether potassium deficiency per se is causally related to this finding. (5) Deficits of extracellular sodium and of chloride have been revealed in four cases of hypotonic dehydration with cell potassium deficiency. Presumptive evidence only of potassium loss was presented in one case of pyloric stenosis, but conclusive proof was offered in the investigation of a child with acrodynia.