Table 3.
Breakdown of electrolyte abnormalities in specimens with a negative anion gap run on automated clinical chemistry analyzers.
| Specimen category |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Na+ low1 | Cl- high2 | HCO3− high2 | Unique patients with one or more specimens in the category3 | Specimens in the category3 (number / %) |
| X | 18 | 27 (20.3%) | ||
| X | 10 | 16 (12.0%) | ||
| X | 24 | 46 (34.6%) | ||
| X | X | 14 | 17 (12.8%) | |
| X | X | 8 | 20 (15.0%) | |
| X | X | 5 | 6 (4.5%) | |
| X | X | X | 1 | 1 (0.8%) |
1
Indicates whether the Na+ was below lower limit of reference range for patient age at time of specimen collection.
2
Indicates whether the Cl- or HCO3− was above upper limit of reference for patient age at time of specimen collection.
3
Note that some patients had multiple specimens with different categories so that sum of results exceeds number of unique patients.