Na+/K+ Ratio in Blood Serum as a Criterion of Human Functional State

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Abstract

The article discusses the physiological significance of the Na+/K+ ratio in blood serum as a criterion of a person’s functional state. Normally, in an adult, the ratio is 32.2 ± 0.5, it increases in a healthy person under the influence of extreme factors (space flight (cosmonauts, astronauts), long-term strict bedrest, etc.), with Covid-19 disease, and some orphan diseases in children. The issue of Na+/K+ in blood serum is being discussed, but not between the K+-rich cell and the Na+-dominated extracellular environment. The Na+/K+ ratio in blood serum is considered as an important parameter of a person’s physiological state and, depending on the numerical value, as an indicator of the functional state from normal to overload, severe complications to the prognosis of death.

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About the authors

Yu. V. Natochin

Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: natochin1@mail.ru
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

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2. Fig. 1. Dynamics of the Na+/K+ ratio in subjects in an experiment with prolonged bed rest (6 months). The abscissa axis shows the duration of the experiment in days. The ordinate axis shows the Na+/K+ ratio in the blood serum. The square is the initial value (light circles), the black line is bed rest, the transition to a normal motor regime is a double line. Arrow 1 is the beginning, arrow 2 is the end of bed rest [14].

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3. Fig. 2. The Na+/K+ ratio in the blood serum of cosmonauts who completed a flight lasting from 18 to 241 days. Vertical axis – Na+/K+ ratio in the blood serum. Horizontal axis – flight duration. Legend: before the flight – black, after the flight – shading. The number of examined cosmonauts is in brackets: 18–30 (n = 8); 63–96 (n = 4); 140–175 (n = 18); 211–214 (n = 6). Reliability of differences after the flight to the data before the flight, * – p < 0.05, NS – not reliable [14].

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4. Fig. 3. Na+/K+ ratio in the blood serum of American astronauts (n = 196) [15]. Vertical axis – Na+/K+ ratio in the blood serum. Horizontal axis – before and after the flight. Legend: before the flight – black, after the flight – shading. Reliability of differences after the flight to the data before the flight, ***– p < 0.001.

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