Clinical and electrocardiogram presentations of patients with high serum potassium concentrations within emergency settings: a prospective study

Table 5 Correlations of time to treatment and serum potassium levels with ECGs’ alterations, patients’ vital signs, and their laboratory values

	Time to hyperkalemia treatment^a		Serum potassium levels
	Pearson r	*p-value*	Pearson r	*p-value*
ECG changes suggestive of hyperkalemia
PR interval (msec)	−0.209	0.130	0.283*	*0.038*
QRS duration (msec)	−0.033	0.793	0.361**	*0.003*
QTc interval (msec)	0.187	0.134	0.123	0.324
RR interval (msec)	−0.163	0.188	0.003	0.984
Presence of peaked T wave^b	−0.035	0.779	0.242*	*0.041*
Vital signs at the time of emergency presentation
Temperature (°C)	0.057	0.647	−0.048	0.702
Heart rate (beats per min)	0.155	0.210	0.002	0.990
Respiratory rate (breaths per min)	0.081	0.512	0.071	0.568
Systolic pressure	−0.133	0.285	−0.224	0.068
Diastolic pressure	0.073	0.557	−0.234	0.057
Pulse oximeter (O₂ saturation)	−0.138	0.267	0.000	0.997
Serum laboratory values at the time of emergency presentation
Potassium levels	−0.044	0.722	1	-
Creatinine levels (μmol/L)	0.183	0.138	0.347**	*0.004*
BUN (mmol/L)	0.166	0.180	0.312**	*0.008*
Ph	0.100	0.467	−0.259	0.056
PCO₂ (mmHg)	−0.067	0.625	−0.101	0.462
HCO₃ (meq/L)	0.018	0.895	−0.240	0.078
BE (base excess) (meq/L)	−0.056	0.692	−0.158	0.259
Troponin (ng/ml)	0.160	0.415	−0.281	0.147
CK-MB (IU/L)	−0.040	0.832	0.148	0.428
CK (U/L)	0.131	0.481	0.373*	*0.039*

^aTime to hyperkalemia treatment was calculated by the difference between the triage time and the first hyperkalemia therapy administration
^bPeaked T wave was coded with one when it is present and zero when it is absent
Bold indicates significant statistical correlations: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level, while **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level

ISSN: 1865-1380