A young girl has consumed barium carbonate with suicidal intent. She complains of generalized muscle weakness. The most likely electrolyte is:

Barium may shift extracellular potassium intracellularly, resulting in extracellular hypokalemia, which is believed to mediate barium-induced paralysis and muscle weakness. So hypokalemia is thesingle best answer of choice Ref: Medical Toxicology-Richard C. Da, Pages 1403-04; The Essentials of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology By Dr.K.S. Narayan R.