PRACTICAL 2: Travellers' Health

Determination of sodium and potassium ion concentration



The manual pages for practical 2 are available for browsing here on the Web or can be downloaded in Word or PDF format and printed out. The advantage of the Web version is that it contains useful hyperlinks to other practical pages and Web sites. The Web version is also split into two main parts: Theory and Methods plus a page where the data obtained by the whole class will be tabulated for subsequent statistical analysis, and Appendices outlining the Safety Regulations in the laboratory and the use of automatic pipettes. As this is your first laboratory practical, it is essential that you read the safety regulations before coming to the class and that you follow them in this and all subsequent practicals.

General resources for this module can be found on the relevant Faculty Web resource page.

Useful further reading on sodium, potassium and electrolyte balance for this practical can be obtained from the book Clinical Chemistry, by W.J. Marshall (3rd edn, Mosby), Chapter 2. Chapter 1 of this book also provides a useful introduction to biochemical tests in clinical medicine and on the interpretation and reliability of results.

A comprehensive, though somewhat technical, "beginner's guide" to the use of ion-selective electrodes has been posted on the Web by Dr. Chris Rundle of the manufacturing company Nico2000.

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