Name a common electrolyte disorder that occurs when the amount of sodium in your blood becomes abnormally low.

Correct — D. Take the word apart: hypo- means below normal, natr- comes from natrium, the Latin name for sodium and the source of its symbol Na, and -emia places the condition in the blood.

Abnormally low sodium in the blood is therefore hyponatremia. It is a common electrolyte disorder in clinical practice, and it usually reflects too much water relative to sodium rather than too little salt eaten. Option (d) matches the definition word for word.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Hypokalemia — Hypokalemia is low potassium, from kalium and the symbol K. The prefix is right and the mineral is wrong.
• (b)
  Hyperkalemia — Hyperkalemia is high potassium — wrong on both counts, since the question describes a low level and names sodium.
• (c)
  Hypernatremia — Hypernatremia is the right mineral with the wrong prefix: hyper- means abnormally high sodium, the mirror image of what is described.

Electrolyte disorder names are built from three pieces, and once you can read them the list stops needing to be memorised.

The prefix gives direction: hypo- below normal, hyper- above. The root gives the ion from its Latin name: natrium for sodium and kalium for potassium. The suffix -emia means in the blood.

So hyponatremia is low blood sodium, hyperkalemia is high blood potassium, and hypocalcemia is low blood calcium.

Key facts

• Hyponatremia is an abnormally low concentration of sodium in the blood.
• Sodium's symbol Na comes from natrium and potassium's symbol K from kalium.
• The prefix hypo- means below normal and hyper- means above normal.
• The suffix -emia refers to a condition of the blood.

Common traps

• Choosing hypokalemia because the prefix is right and the root goes unread.
• Reading natrium as potassium, since Na and K are the pair most often swapped.

No directly related past PYQ was found.