title: Pseudohyponatraemia, hypercholesterolaemia, and primary biliary cirrhosis.
abstract: A 62 year old woman with primary biliary cirrhosis was found to have a plasma sodium concentration of 115 mmol/l. Follow up showed this to be a "pseudohyponatraemia" due to a massively raised serum cholesterol concentration of 78 mmol/l. Electrophoresis of serum lipoproteins and of the lipoproteins and apolipoproteins in fractions isolated on density-gradient ultracentrifugation showed that the major portion of the serum cholesterol was being transported with lipoprotein-X. Low density lipoprotein-cholesterol concentration was also raised. Lipoprotein-X contained, in addition to albumin and apolipoprotein C, apolipoprotein E. This case is of interest because of the degree of hypercholesterolaemia, its association with pseudohyponatraemia, and the unequivocal demonstration of apolipoprotein E associated with lipoprotein-X.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia.
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hickman
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Masarei
mesh_terms: D001053:Apolipoproteins / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D007010:Hyponatremia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D008074:Lipoproteins / Q000097:blood; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications*; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D001053:Apolipoproteins; D008074:Lipoproteins