Raphael, in his third-year medical internship, was alone in the hospital emergency room (ER) one night. It was unusually quiet in the ER, so the resident doctors were getting some much-needed sleep. A patient, Ms. Rose, was brought in showing signs of serious dehydration. Raphael tried to give her water but she vomited. Feeling that he must try something else and not wanting to wake the residents, he administered 1 liter (L) of sterile distilled water intravenously (IV). Assume for simplicity that red blood cells (RBC) contain only solutes to which the RBC membrane is impermeable. The osmolarity of the RBC is 300 mOsm/L. 1. The volume of Ms. Rose’s plasma was 3 L before Raphael administered the IV. Assume that there was complete mixing of the administered water with her plasma but no mixing with her interstitial fluid. Calculate Ms. Rose’s plasma osmolarity after the infusion mixed with her plasma but before any water entered her RBC.
Raphael, in his third-year medical internship, was alone in the hospital emergency room (ER) one night. It was unusually quiet in the ER, so the resident doctors were getting some much-needed sleep. A patient, Ms. Rose, was brought in showing signs of serious dehydration. Raphael tried to give her water but she vomited. Feeling that he must try something else and not wanting to wake the residents, he administered 1 liter (L) of sterile distilled water intravenously (IV).
Assume for simplicity that red blood cells (RBC) contain only solutes to which the RBC membrane is impermeable. The osmolarity of the RBC is 300 mOsm/L.
1. The volume of Ms. Rose’s plasma was 3 L before Raphael administered the IV. Assume that there was complete mixing of the administered water with her plasma but no mixing with her interstitial fluid. Calculate Ms. Rose’s plasma osmolarity after the infusion mixed with her plasma but before any water entered her RBC.
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