When intravenous fluids are given to a patient in a hospital, careful attention
ID: 73284 • Letter: W
Question
When intravenous fluids are given to a patient in a hospital, careful attention must be paid to the salt concentration of those fluids. The salt concentration must be isotonic (same salt concentration as exists inside the persons cells). What would happen to the cells lining the blood vesicles, if a doctor administered a hypotonic solution to a patient intravenously?
The cells lining the blood vesicles would shrink as salts and small molecules would diffuse into the blood vesicles
The cells lining the blood vesicles would swell and potentially burst due to osmotic pressure
The endothelial cells lining the blood vesicles would pump chloride ions into the cells to move toward equilibrium
The endothelial cells lining the blood vesicles would pump sodium ions into the cells to move toward equilibrium
Explanation / Answer
B. The cells lining the blood vesicles would swell and potentially burst due to osmotic pressure.
Our body fluids contain salts dissolved and or suspended in water. These fluids are present both in intracellular and extracellular fluids, separated by a semi permeable membrane. According to the concentration of the solute, the water move across the membrane (osmosis), this ability of osmosis to draw water to build up certain pressure is called osmotic pressure. So, water always moves to maintain uniform pressure in and outside of the cell, hence all the intracellular and extracellular fluids are isotonic.
The fluids having lower osmotic pressure than the body fluids are known as hypotonic solutions. If cells are placed in hypotonic solution, they draw water from the solution and swell.
The fluids having more osmotic pressure than the body fluids are known as hypertonic solutions. The cells placed in hypertonic solutions shrink as they lose water into the surrounding hypertonic solution.
Related Questions
drjack9650@gmail.com
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.