Potassium!!

[ParamedicCharlie]

A great bio question, I have scoured the Internet and questioned docs and medical professionals. And the answers are all not definitive.

Is intracellular and extracellular potassium attached to any other ions or organic compounds or molecules? Or is it a free floating cation in both?

Thanks, see you on the streets.

Paramedic Charlie
Every patient is family

 

[Veneficus]

A great bio question, I have scoured the Internet and questioned docs and medical professionals. And the answers are all not definitive.

Is intracellular and extracellular potassium attached to any other ions or organic compounds or molecules? Or is it a free floating cation in both?

Thanks, see you on the streets.

Paramedic Charlie
Every patient is family

it is not permanantly attached to anything.

If you understand how hydrogen ions migrate in water, it works the same way.

Humans are an electrical current in a water medium.

 

[Veneficus]

Another way to say it would be that it is a solute in a solution.

That is the trouble with many scientific teachings, in order to describe a dynamic process, it is broken down into stagnant snapshots.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Get a hold of an Interactive Physiology (IP) CD. It worked wonders for me during medic school.

 

[Merck]

If it's a purely academic question I'd say that you have to look at dissociation constants for particular acids/bases and their salts. It's been years since a chem course and I'm too lazy to google anything but that's my guess.

From a clinical point of view it's irrelevant. K+ will act as described regardless of the relative bases. Intracellular K+ and effects and shifts are easily found and I'd suggest a lot of reading on renal physiology if you want to enhance your understanding.

Cheers.