Clin Nephrol
-
We describe a patient who developed persistant hypokalemia after renal transplantation that was initially attributed to diuretics and/or steroids. However after stopping the diuretic, the patient continued to have urinary losses of potassium (less than 30 mEq/day) at a time when the serum potassium was only 2.4 mEq/l and high urinary chloride (33 mEq/day) suggesting that the diuretics were not responsible for the hypokalemia and the metabolic alkalosis. ⋯ Surgical removal of the adrenal adenoma led to the normalization of the serum potassium and a fall in the total CO2 content in plasma. To our knowledge this is the first report of a case of hypokalemia secondary to primary hyperaldosteronism in a renal transplant recipient.