If you are not familiar with the terms molarity, molality, osmolarity, osmolality, equivalents, and tonicity , please review Units of Measure . However, the ionic activity is limited to the aqueous portion of the solution. This is why the numbers in the second plasma column are higher than the first. Not all of the reported concentrations are FREE . Some ions are bound to proteins or other ions.
Proteins have many negative charges per molecule.
The equivalents given above are therefore much higher than the molarity of those same proteins. Copyright 1999, Joe Patlak, Department of Physiology, University of Vermont. For comments, problems or questions regarding this web contact Joe Patlak .