We have shown that the sodium concentration in whole blood measured by direct potentiometry is higher than in plasma. The ‘erythrocyte-effect’, already described by Siggaard Andersen, is most pronounced for instruments equipped with a reference electrode with an open static liquid junction and is thus a general phenomenon. Instruments with a modified liquid junction show less interference. The same phenomenon appears for the determination of the potassium concentration, although the difference between whole blood and plasma, when measured with instruments equipped with a modified liquid junction, can be neglected in practice.
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