[Content and distribution of water and potassium in the body of patients with chronic circulatory insufficiency].

The total water content (after antipyrine and tritium oxide), that of extracellular water (after sodium thiosulphate) and of overall metabolic potassium (with reference to K42) were studied concurrently in 34 patients with chronic circulatory insufficiency. Twenty normal subjects served as controls. In the sick the disturbances of the water metabolism made themselves felt not only in the accumulation of surplus water in the body, but also in its re-distribution. In the presence of marked edemas the total water level rises both at the expense of extra- and intracellular water. With the normal level of total water the extracellular water fraction is up and the intracellular one is down. An early and consistent sign of circulatory insufficiency is a drop in the amount of overall metabolic potassium in the body. The potassium deficit increases parallel with progressing circulatory insufficiency, being contingent not only upon the reduction of the cellular mass, but also on the lower intracellular concentration of potassium. The concentration of potassium in the plasma does not reflect the overall content of it in the body.