Title: Acute extracellular ethanol load does not produce hyponatremia by internal osmoregulation
Abstract: Hyponatremia is frequently present in subjects intoxicated with ethanol. To study whether an acute increase in extracellular osmolality by addition of ethanol creates any clinically appreciable osmotic shift of intracellular water extracellularly, they infused over 20 sec 11 mmol/kg of ethanol intravenously into 5 anesthetized dogs (2 with intact renal function, 3 anuric) and measured plasma sodium and ethanol concentrations and osmolality at frequent intervals for 100 min after the end of the infusion. For a range of ethanol concentration between 4 and 120 mmol/l, changes in osmolality were equal to ethanol concentration in plasma water (y = -0.49 + 1.06 x mosm/kg per mmol/l, r = 0.981, p < 0.01). Plasma sodium concentration remained unchanged from baseline throughout the experiments, even at 1 min post-infusion, when osmolality was 78 +/- 25 mosm/kg above the baseline. An acute increase in extracellular osmolality created by rapid intravenous infusion of a large dose of ethanol does not create any osmotic shift of intracellular water extracellularly, that can be detected by dilution of extracellular sodium. The mechanism of hyponatremia in ethanol intoxication is not internal osmoregulation, but abnormalities in external balance of body water and/or solute.
Publication Year: 1986
Publication Date: 1986-03-05
Language: en
Type: article
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