Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Practice Cases in primary care laboratory medicine

Spurious hyperkalaemia

BMJ 2007; 334 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39119.607986.47 (Published 29 March 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:693

Rapid Response:

Corticosteroids cause hypokalemia, not hyperkalemia

In his review, Dr. W Stuart A Smellie lists corticosteroids as one of
the medications that might cause hyperkalemia.
This is probably an oversight. Corticosteroids are well known to cause
hypokalemia. Hyperkalemia is a manifestation of adrenal insufficiency.
Hypokalemia is also a manifestation of Cushing's syndrome, which is a
corticosteroid excess condition.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

04 April 2007
Shirwan A. Mirza
Private practice
Auburn, NY 13021