Electrolytes Test Price in Pakistan: PKR 1,050

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electrical charge when dissolved in body fluids. MedlinePlus explains that they balance the amount of water in your body, balance your acid-base level, move nutrients into cells and waste out of them, support muscle and nerve function, keep your heart rate and rhythm steady, keep blood pressure stable, and keep bones and teeth healthy. At Marham Lab a serum electrolytes panel costs PKR 1,050.

What the Panel Measures

MedlinePlus lists the body's main electrolytes and what each does.

Marham Lab's panel is listed as Serum Electrolytes covering sodium, potassium, chloride and bicarbonate. If your doctor also wants [calcium](/labs/tests/calcium-test-price), magnesium or phosphate, those are ordered separately, so check the prescription against what you are booking.

Why It Is Ordered

MedlinePlus notes an electrolyte panel is often part of a routine blood screening or a comprehensive metabolic panel, and may also be used to find out whether your body has a fluid imbalance or an acid-base imbalance.

The symptoms it lists as reasons for testing are nausea and vomiting, confusion and irritability, weakness, an irregular or fast heartbeat, diarrhoea or constipation, fatigue, headaches, muscle weakness, cramps or spasms, and numbness or tingling in the arms, legs, fingers and toes.

In Pakistan this panel is most often ordered after prolonged vomiting or diarrhoea, which is exactly the situation MedlinePlus describes: the balance is upset when the water you take in stops matching the water you lose.

Reading Your Result

MedlinePlus is careful about over-reading a single abnormal value. It states that if your electrolyte levels were not in the normal range, it does not necessarily mean you have a medical problem needing treatment, and that many factors affect them, including taking in too much fluid, losing fluid through vomiting or diarrhoea, and certain medicines.

Conditions MedlinePlus links to abnormal electrolytes include dehydration, kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, lung infection such as tuberculosis, malabsorption, liver disease, acidosis and alkalosis.

Medicines it names as causes of imbalance are antibiotics, antacids especially in large amounts, chemotherapy medicines, diuretics or water pills, and steroid medicines. Antacids are worth flagging, because they are taken freely here without anyone thinking of them as medication.

The Names on Your Report

Reports often use clinical terms rather than plain language. MedlinePlus gives the pairs.

MedlinePlus also notes that abnormal levels can be a sign of a serious problem including kidney disease, high blood pressure and a life threatening type of irregular heartbeat. That is the reason a report with an abnormal potassium in particular belongs with a doctor quickly rather than at the bottom of a bag.

A Related Test You May See

MedlinePlus notes your provider may order an anion gap blood test alongside the panel, which measures the difference between negatively and positively charged electrolytes. If the anion gap is too high or too low, it may point to a serious health problem.

How to Prepare

MedlinePlus states no special preparations are needed for an electrolyte panel. No fasting is required.

Tell your doctor what you take, including antacids and water pills, since both can move these numbers.

What Happens During the Test

A trained phlebotomist takes a small blood sample from a vein in your arm using a small needle. MedlinePlus notes it usually takes less than five minutes and a little sting is normal. In Lahore the sample can be collected at your home, which matters when someone is weak from vomiting or diarrhoea.

اردو میں

الیکٹرولائٹس وہ معدنیات ہیں جو جسم میں پانی کا توازن، پٹھوں اور اعصاب کی کارکردگی، دل کی دھڑکن اور بلڈ پریشر کو کنٹرول کرتی ہیں۔ اس ٹیسٹ میں سوڈیم، پوٹاشیم، کلورائیڈ اور بائی کاربونیٹ کی مقدار دیکھی جاتی ہے۔

یہ ٹیسٹ عام طور پر اس وقت کروایا جاتا ہے جب قے یا دست لگے ہوں، کمزوری ہو، دل کی دھڑکن بے ترتیب ہو، یا ہاتھ پاؤں میں سنسناہٹ ہو۔ پاکستان میں زیادہ تر یہ ٹیسٹ لمبی قے یا دستوں کے بعد کروایا جاتا ہے۔

ایک اہم بات۔ رپورٹ کا نارمل سے ہٹنا ہمیشہ بیماری کا مطلب نہیں۔ زیادہ یا کم پانی، قے، دست اور کچھ دوائیں بھی ان کی مقدار بدل دیتی ہیں۔ خاص طور پر معدے کی اینٹی ایسڈ گولیاں اور بلڈ پریشر کی پیشاب آور دوائیں۔ اس لیے اپنی تمام دوائیں ڈاکٹر کو بتائیں۔

اگر پوٹاشیم کی مقدار بہت زیادہ یا بہت کم ہو تو فوراً ڈاکٹر کو دکھائیں، کیونکہ اس سے دل کی دھڑکن متاثر ہو سکتی ہے۔ ٹیسٹ سے پہلے بھوکا رہنے کی ضرورت نہیں۔ مرہم لیب میں قیمت ایک ہزار پچاس روپے ہے۔

Final Thoughts

An electrolyte panel is a cheap, fast test that is genuinely useful when fluids have been lost or medicines are involved. It is also a test where a single out-of-range number means much less than people assume, because hydration and everyday medicines move these values. Tell your doctor everything you take, including antacids, and act promptly on an abnormal potassium.