The relation between potassium in body fluids and total body potassium in healthy and diabetic subjects.

1. The concentration of potassium in the erythrocytes and the plasma of forty-one normal subjects and twenty-five diabetic patients was measured and the results were used to calculate the total amount of potassium in the erythrocyte mass and the total amount of potassium in the plasma. The total body potassium was measured in a whole-body monitor. 2. In normal subjects a close correlation was found between total erythrocyte potassium and total body potassium and also between total plasma potassium and total body potassium. 3. The regression relation between total body potassium and total erythrocyte potassium in normal subjects was used to predict the total body potassium in diabetic patients. There was reasonable agreement between the measured and predicted total body potassium but there was poor agreement between the measured total body potassium and that predicted from the patient's height and age or height and age or height, weight and age.