Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most oft

Question

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.

I cannot understand the logic behind OA. Need help.

pqhai · Accepted Answer

ANALYZE THE STIMULUS: 
 
 Fact 1:  Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most often in kidney dialysis patients 
 Fact 2:  Hyperkalemia causes pain, severely erratic pulse, and tissue swelling throughout the body. 
 Fact 3:  Hyperkalemia is the result of extremely high levels of potassium in the blood 
 Fact 4:  in an emergency, Hyperkalemia can be treated with an injection of calcium chloride. 
 Fact 5:  However, since calcium chloride destroys surrounding tissues if it escapes from a vein, doctors overwhelmingly prefer preventative treatments.

ANALYZE EACH OPTION:

-Potassium is poisonous except  in very small amounts .
 Wrong.  Cannot infer that.

-Since the symptoms of hyperkalemia resemble those of  heart attack , the condition is often misdiagnosed.
 Wrong.  Out of scope.

-Calcium supplements are the preferred  preventative  treatment for hyperkalemia.
 Wrong.   Fact 5 clearly indicate Calcium is not a preventive treatment, but  it’s a treatment for emergency only .

-The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream.
  Correct.    Combine fact 1 & fact 3.  Hyperkalemia is the result of extremely high levels of potassium in the blood  AND  is found   most often   in kidney patients. We can infer that in kidney patients’ body, kidneys do not function properly, and are not able to remove excess potassium. ==> In normal people’s body, kidneys are  at least partially  responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream
 
-Most cases of hyperkalemia result in  permanent  tissue damage.
 Wrong.  Cannot infer that.

Hope it helps.

AMITAGARWAL2 · Answer

only D and E seems close.

E - hyperkalemia results in tissue damage. It is true only when it is treated with CaCl. Passage do not say how many patients had tissue damage because it could have been found in research and CaCl was never used on patients.
SO we left with D only.

Hope this helps.

nikhiil · Answer

Answer: D

Since Hyperkalemia is the result of extremely high levels of potassium in the blood and is found in kidney dialysis patients, it is safe to deduce that people who have working kidney system, have less chances of this problem.  So It must be Kidney which removes the excess of the potassium content.

Amit1408GMAThunk · Answer

Amazing CR question!!! Hats off to the question.

abrakadabra21 · Answer

I dont agree with D.

The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream.

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. => somehow that connects Hyperkalemia to Kidney Dialysis. Still you don't know what causes what. or it's just one particular gene which is responsible for both. Anything could be the reason,

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. => You know that CaCl2 destroy surrounding tissue as Cacl2 has a tendency of leakage from vein.

But you dont know that even if liver is working fine, kidney will be able to remove excess K from the bloodstream. May be CaCl2 in its nature is difficult to be removed. May be it react with other chemicals and form another compund. which even if liver working fine can not be removed. So many assumption. IMO D is not accurate.

Expert Pl weigh in 
@veritasprep egmat Manhattanprep

Outside information doesn't work in Inference question.

LogicGuru1 · Answer

This is a response to a PM asking about this question's explanation.

The winner here undoubtedly is OPTION D

Let us quickly sort out the fact into readable list
 PREMISE 1) Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most often in   kidney dialysis patients   
PREMISE 2) Hyperkalemia is the  result of extremely high levels of potassium in the blood 
PREMISE 3) Hyperkalemia can be treated with an injection of calcium chloride 
 COUNTER-PREMISE) :- Since  calcium chloride destroys  surrounding tissues,   doctors overwhelmingly prefer preventative treatments

Now to find the conclusion lets check the options one by one 
-Potassium is poisonous except in very small amounts.
 WRONG :- "POISONOUS".. are you kidding ... ??? The argument never says that potassium is poisonous. Argument talks about a  POTENTIALLY (not definite) FATAL CONDITION  caused by high dosage of potassium .  So first of all there is no poison involved  , secondly even if too much of potassium is present in the body, the condition is  POTENTIALLY FATAL . It may or may not be fatal in every case. It has the potential to become fatal, but in how many cases it becomes fatal cannot be deduced. Diabetes is a potentially fatal condition but diabetic people live long with proper diet and exercise.

-Since the symptoms of hyperkalemia resemble those of heart attack, the condition is often misdiagnosed.
 WRONG :- Straight out garbage . Throw it out even without consideration. There is no mention of Heart-attack in the stimulus.

-Calcium supplements are the preferred preventative treatment for hyperkalemia.
WRONG:- REVERSE ANSWER:-  This is an answer to fool newbies. 
The COUNTER PREMISE we reached through our analysis tells us that  calcium is RARELY USED by doctors because it is dangerous to tissues .   Doctors prefer preventive treatment  . It means doctors prefer to prevent the onset of Hyperkelemia. If during a checkup doctors find high Potassium level in a person then they try to treat that person ever before hyperkelelmia can become a big problem to the patient. THEY USE PREVENTIVE MEASURES, which means they try to prevent the onset of hyperkelemia.  Calcium is the least preferred line of treatment.

-The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream.
 BINGO CORRECT ANSWER  :- 
 Premise 1  tells us that  hyperkelemia is found in dialysis patients whose kidney are not working properly.  Premise 2 tells us that  hyperkelemic patients has high level of potassium in the blood . What does it tells us. 
Hyperkalemia = Bad kidneys (needs dialysis)
Hyperkalemia = High potassium in blood 
If bad kidney = high pottasium in blood THEN good Healthy kidneys = low pottasium in blood
It means good healthy kidneys remove potassium from the blood. Might be .. This option is logically deductive from the set of premises

-Most cases of hyperkalemia result in permanent tissue damage.
 WRONG  :- Hyperkalemia causes swelling, pain, and irregular pulse rate but NO TISSUE DAMAGE. Tissue damage happens when calcium is given to treat hyperkalemia.

NOTE:- The answer is very easy to spot through logical deduction by sorting the argument in premises. 
IF YOU ARE NOT CONVINCED WITH THE ANSWER BY DEDUCTIVE REASONING, THEN USE PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. ALL OTHER ANSWERS ARE BLATANTLY WRONG IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER LEAVING ONLY OPTION D.

abrakadabra21 · Answer

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.

You are forgetting that Hyperkalemia can exist alone without Kidney condition (most often)

Now consider this :

You have good Kidney. The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream. In that case, you are good to go. Kidney will remove excess potassium and you don't need any chemical treatment. In that case, Hyperkalemia should not exist at all. If argument has been written as : Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found  always  in kidney dialysis patients that causes pain, severely erratic pulse, and tissue swelling throughout the body. THen , I would have agreed upon it.

LogicGuru1 · Answer

Well, do you see a better option than D. Do you want to file a law-suit against GMAT for providing four incorrect and one "half correct" answer ? In any case D is correct and you in your earlier post have yourself answered why D is correct , you just don't know it yet

Read your post again and you will realise why D is correct. I will help again if you fail to see where you are committing the mistake despite the fact that you have extracted absolutely correct premise and absolutely correct answer (as per the language of your post) Jog the mind a little.. you are almost there !

ravikrishna1979 · Answer

Option D can not be logically concluded or inferred because as of me I am not aware of what is dialysis means. It could be some disease related to Kidney that may not be related to potassium cleaning at all.

All Kidney diseases cannot be related to Potassium cleaning activity.

May I know the source of the question, not sure whether such ambigous questions appear in GMAT.

abrakadabra21 · Answer

I still stick with my analysis for D. I don't know if it is GMATprep ques. 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. The only given information is Hyperkalemia comes together with kidney dialysis. (for a while I forget about "Most often part") still I can't arrive at this. How do we know that there is no third disease is present together with these two. May be it's a triple disease package. (I am sorry for the pun.) In that case, may be that is the reason that K is not removed from the body. -The kidneys are at least partially responsible for removing excess potassium from the bloodstream. If I consider myself just an analyst and not a doctor, I don't know what kidney removes and what not. Then I won't be able to come to the inference at all. And that's not how Inference question work. A + B = C . I should be able to arrive at C. If I add (B) in this statement like this : 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. Kidney is responsible to remove extra minerals, including potassium from 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. Then it's D. P.s.> I checked wiki. dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood. but still I don't know "what is waste" here. https://www.scienceclarified.com/El-Ex/E ... ystem.html if I recall correctly biology class, waste is also removed through sweat, no role of Kidney there, I suppose. Who knows extra K is removed by sweat, rather than Kidney.

RajdeepGM · Answer

The passage guves enough information and then asks about the logical conclusion. Conclusion isnsomething which should be "derived" from the given info. A is obvious, B is irrelevant, C is uncertain, E is conditional. ONLY B SOUNDS LIKE A CONCLUSION.

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Posted from my mobile device

SAMARTHBANNUR · Answer

Kidney dialysis is a procedure that removes excess water, waste, and toxins from the blood when the kidneys are no longer functioning properly. It's a type of treatment for kidney failure. Hence what the author is intending to say is that the kidneys, if functioning properly, will ensure Hyperkalemia does not occur.

Hyperkalemia is a potentially fatal condition found most oft

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