What is chloride?
Chloride is one of the most important electrolytes in the blood. It helps keep the amount of fluid inside and outside of your cells in balance.
Why test chloride?
Unless this is ordered as a retest or for a specific reason, we recommend ordering this as part of a health test.
What causes low chloride (hypochloremia)?
This means you have less chloride in the blood than expected (for your age and gender). Causes of low chloride include insufficient salt intake, excessive chloride loss through the digestive system or urine, excess fluid intake, and health conditions that cause fluid retention, such as congestive heart failure, metabolic alkalosis, and electrolyte imbalance.
Symptoms of low chloride
What causes high chloride (hyperchloremia)?
This means you have more chloride in the blood than expected (for your age and gender). Excess salt in the diet, kidney inflammation, medications, chloride-rich food, some health conditions, dehydration, stress, and certain therapies can all increase chloride levels.
Symptoms of high chloride
Symptoms of high chloride levels, or hyperchloremia, include dehydration, excessive thirst, high blood pressure, muscle weakness, fatigue, and, in severe cases, confusion or irregular heartbeats. These symptoms arise because of an imbalance in electrolytes, affecting the body's fluid and acid-base balance.
More information
Preparations for this test
No preparation is needed for this test.
On the day of the test
Always take I.D. with you when going to take a test. Arrive early and sit down quietly for 15 minutes before the test.