Gelfand M C, Zarate A, Knepshield J H
JAMA. 1975 Nov 17;234(7):738-40. doi: 10.1001/jama.234.7.738.
Geophagia has been associated with life-threatening hyperkalemia in five patients with chronic renal failure. All five patients were black and had been born in the southeastern United States. Four had had frequent hyperkalemia requiring at least one hospitalization, and two had had hyperkalemia with serum potassium concentration as high as 9.8 mEq/liter, resulting in cardiac arrest in one and paralysis, disorientation, and cardiac arrythmia in the other. Since riverbed clay contains as much as 100 mEq of potassium in 100 gm of clay, much of which is exchangeable at acid pH, the mechanism of geophagia-induced hyperkalemia appears to be the absorption of potassium released from clay after ingestion. After discontinuing geophagia, no new hyperkalemic episodes occurred in these patients.
食土癖与5例慢性肾衰竭患者的危及生命的高钾血症有关。所有5例患者均为黑人，出生于美国东南部。4例患者频繁出现高钾血症，至少住院1次，2例患者高钾血症时血清钾浓度高达9.8 mEq/升，其中1例导致心脏骤停，另1例导致瘫痪、定向障碍和心律失常。由于河床黏土每100克中含钾量高达100 mEq，其中大部分在酸性pH值下可交换，食土癖所致高钾血症的机制似乎是摄入后从黏土中释放的钾被吸收。停止食土癖后，这些患者未再发生新的高钾血症发作。
