Hyperkalaemia: who gets it, how frequent is it, what do I do and does it matter?

We are pleased to bring you a podcast from last year’s Cardiorenal Forum Annual Scientific Meeting, held in London on 13th October 2017. A highlight of the day’s proceedings included a lively and informative debate on hyperkalaemia – where abnormally high potassium levels are a major concern for many clinicians, particularly nephrologists and cardiologists. The fear of causing hyperkalaemia is depriving many thousands of patients of appropriate treatment.

Hyperkalaemia is often multifactorial in origin and may be seen in chronic kidney disease (CKD), acute kidney injury, heart failure, diabetes, elderly patients and those prescribed renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system (RAAS) antagonists. This important area is often somewhat neglected by healthcare professionals. Left untreated, high potassium increases the risk of mortality in CKD and can also result in increased risk of serious cardiac arrhythmia and other acute complications. Chronically it may result in patients with heart failure having symptom and life-improving treatments withdrawn. New therapies for hyperkalaemia are now coming through...

Is hyperkalaemia more of a problem for nephrologists or for cardiologists? Watch nephrologist, David Wheeler (Royal Free Hospital, London) and cardiologist, Colin Doig (Northumbria) battle it out and answer who gets hyperkalaemia, how frequent it is and whether it matters.
Watch and enjoy the debate while learning about the condition through an entertaining combat between the kidney doctors and the heart empire, who strike back!

The Cardiorenal Forum (CRF) is an independent group formed in 2006. The key objective of the group is to highlight the important clinical overlap that exists between patients