Electrolyte Interpreter
Interpret one or more electrolyte results with urgency flags, symptoms, and drug causes.
This tool interprets electrolyte values — sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and others — against normal, mild, significant, and critical ranges, and can check several at once as a panel. See How Calculator Tools Work for the shared layout.
Inputs
Select an electrolyte from the supported list and enter its value (with unit); add more to build a panel, or check a single value on its own.
Reading the result
Each value is classified by how far it sits from the normal range, from least to most urgent:
| Direction | Urgency | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Within normal range | Routine | Normal |
| Mildly outside normal | Routine | Routine monitoring |
| Outside the "mild" range | Urgent | Review within 48 hours |
| Outside the "significant" range | Emergency | Same-day referral recommended |
| Outside the "critical" range | Immediate | Refer to A&E immediately |
Alongside the classification, the tool shows symptoms to watch for at that level and drug causes — medications known to cause that specific direction of imbalance, useful for spotting a medication-induced electrolyte problem rather than treating it as unrelated.
Panel mode
When you enter more than one electrolyte, the result shows each one's individual interpretation plus an overall urgency — the single most urgent classification across the panel. If any value is in the critical range, a clear "CRITICAL VALUE DETECTED — refer patient to A&E immediately" message is shown at the top, regardless of how the other values in the panel look.