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Senior Manager
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Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most often in kidney dialysis patients that causes pain, severely erratic pulse, and tissue swelling throughout the body. Hyperkalemia is the result of extremely high levels of potassium in the blood and, in an emergency, can be treated with an injection of calcium chloride. However, since calcium chloride destroys surrounding tissues if it escapes from a vein, doctors overwhelmingly prefer preventative treatments.
Which of the following can most logically be concluded based on the passage above?
Potassium is poisonous except in very small amounts.
Since the symptoms of hyperkalemia resemble those of heart attack, the condition is often misdiagnosed.
Calcium supplements are the preferred preventative treatment for hyperkalemia.
The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream.
Most cases of hyperkalemia result in permanent tissue damage.
Please explain your answers.
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Intern
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I think the answer is D.
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Senior Manager
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supridip wrote: I think the answer is D. Could you care to explain?
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Manager
Affiliations: Beta Gamma Sigma
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yeah its definitely D.
this is because the condition is found in kidney dialysis patients, thereby caused by failing kidneys; Moreover, since the condition is also caused by excess potassium, and not found in people with normally functioning kidneys, you can logically infer that the failing kidneys are the cause of the excess potassium which causes the condition. I am also pretty sure that, outside the box, kidneys do play that role in our bodies. I guess E would make sense too, but there is a possibility that the calcium chloride would not damage tissue and the tissue swelling doesnt necessarily mean damage, and doctors overwhelmingly prefer not to use the CaCl, so it could be inferred that it is an unlikely treatment. I would say with a pretty good amount of certainty that D is the correct answer because it is the only one that is mentioned in the stimulus and can be logically inferred from it.
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