A real-life problem of permeability: The 100-mile Leadville CO ultramarathon (el
ID: 3474611 • Letter: A
Question
A real-life problem of permeability: The 100-mile Leadville CO ultramarathon (elevations from 9200-12, 600 ft) is being held on a very hot day and you are running the medical tent. A runner is brought in unconscious and with severe dehydration. You have Nursing Assistants that know how to do IV's, but you have to decide what to give the ailing runner. Your choices (all in sterile IV bags) are: a) 0.15M NaCl in sterile water, b) 0.3M NaCl in sterile water, c) 0.3M glucose and pure, d) sterile H2O. Which would you choose and why? (Include the normal osmotic concentration of blood plasma in your answer.) What would happen to the runner if you gave them the other 3 options? To get full credit you must explain all of your answers!!!Explanation / Answer
Osmolarity of blood plasma is 279-295 mosmol/L i.e. 0.279-0.295 osmols/liter.
Osmolarity is the measure of ionic entities per litre of the solution.
0.15M NaCl would produce 0.3M of ions (because 1 NaCl molecule would break into 2 ions- Na+ and Cl-). Hence the osmolarity would be 0.3 osmoles/litre
Similarly, 0.3 M NaCl would have an osmolarity of 0.6 osmoles/litre.
Glucose does not ionize and so 0.3M solution will have an osmolarity of 0.3 osmoles per liter.
Osmolarity of sterile water is 0.112osmoles per litre.
One should choose to give 0.15M NaCl as its osmolarity matches with that of blood plasma and would also compensate for the electrolyte loss during running.
0.3 M glucose has same osmolarity but it does not ionise and hence electrolyte loss is not re-fueled.
0.3M NaCl has higher osmolarity and would result in excessive loss of body fluids from tissues leading to dehydration.
Sterile water has very low osmolarity causing the tissues to take up excess water leading to edema
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