digitoxin and Water-Electrolyte-Imbalance

Topics: Action Potentials; Anesthesia; Arrhythmias, Cardiac; Cardiovascular Diseases; Digitalis; Digitalis Glycosides; Heart; Humans; Myocardial Contraction; Plants, Medicinal; Plants, Toxic; Water-Electrolyte Imbalance

Modern experimental evidence indicates that the cell should be regarded as analogous to an ion exchanger resin granule with structured water in the interstices and with potassium and sodium ions associated with fixed negative charges on the protein matrix. In tissues damaged by disease or trauma, a similar set of changes in properties of cell cations and water is to be expected, for which a similar set of therapies is appropriate. Tissue damage causes a configurational change of the protein matrix from the normal to the damaged state. This leads to loss of association preference for potassium vs. sodium ions and to loss of water structuring, resulting in replacement of cell potassium by sodium and abnormal uptake of water by the cell. Appropriate therapies for reestablishment of the normal configurational state of the proteins of the cell are reestablishment of normal cell ATP production, for which prostaglandin PGBx is the rational approach, plus diets or drugs that decrease sodium and/or increase potassium concentrations in the body. Partial normalization of cell protein configuration by digitalis compounds may also be possible.

Topics: Adenosine Triphosphate; Animals; Body Water; Cations; Cells; Diet, Sodium-Restricted; Digitalis; Digitalis Glycosides; Diuretics; Humans; Mitochondria; Plants, Medicinal; Plants, Toxic; Potassium; Prostaglandins B; Prostaglandins, Synthetic; Protein Conformation; Proteins; Sodium; Water-Electrolyte Imbalance