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High levels of potassium in the blood, common in people on certain medications or with kidney disease, often come with no symptoms but can be deadly in severe cases.

Because people with hyperkalemia, or high potassium, often "feel normal," their treating physicians must determine whether their condition can be safely managed outside the hospital or requires more urgent treatment in the emergency department.

Researchers at Western University and London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) have shown that the risk of death was significantly lower among patients who were able to get to an emergency department within 24 hours of an abnormally high potassium reading.

The study was recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"The challenge is that patients with hyperkalemia can feel completely fine, even when their potassium is at a dangerously high level. It can be difficult for patients to understand why they need to get to the emergency department right away," said Dr. Michael Chiu, professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and scientist at LHSCRI.

Using population health data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, the researchers studied patients who weren't already admitted to the hospital to determine how many went to the emergency department and how that correlated with their risk of dying.

"It was the first study to investigate whether patients with diagnosed high potassium were going to the emergency department or not, and for those who went, what their outcomes were," said Chiu.

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