Chloride (Cl)

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Test Overview
A chloride test measures the level of chloride in your blood or urine. 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. It also helps maintain proper blood
volume, blood pressure, and pH of your body fluids. Tests for sodium, potassium, and bicarbonate are usually done at the
same time as a blood test for chloride.
Most of the chloride in your body comes from the salt (sodium chloride) you eat. Chloride is absorbed by
your intestines when you digest food. Extra chloride leaves your body in your urine.
Sometimes a test for chloride can be done on a sample of all your urine collected over a 24-hour period (called a 24-hour
urine sample) to find out how much chloride is leaving your body in your urine.
Chloride can also be measured in skin sweat to test for cystic fibrosis .
Why It Is Done
A test for chloride may be done to:
Check your chloride level if you are having symptoms such as muscle twitching or spasms, breathing problems,
weakness, or confusion.
Find out whether you have kidney or adrenal gland problems.
Help find the cause for high blood pH. A condition called metabolic alkalosis can be caused by a loss of acid from
your body (for example, from a loss of electrolytes through prolonged vomiting or diarrhea). You may also have
metabolic alkalosis if your body loses too much sodium or you eat too much baking soda (sodium bicarbonate).
How It Is Done

Blood test
The health professional taking a sample of your blood will:
Wrap an elastic band around your upper arm to stop the flow of blood. This makes the veins below the band larger
so it is easier to put a needle into the vein.
Clean the needle site with alcohol.
Put the needle into the vein. More than one needle stick may be needed.
Attach a tube to the needle to fill it with blood.
Remove the band from your arm when enough blood is collected.
Put a gauze pad or cotton ball over the needle site as the needle is removed.
Put pressure on the site and then put on a bandage.
Urine test
You start collecting your urine in the morning. When you first get up, empty your bladder but do not save this urine.
Write down the time that you urinated to mark the beginning of your 24-hour collection period.
For the next 24 hours, collect all your urine. Your doctor or lab will usually provide you with a large container that
holds about 1 gal (4 L). The container has a small amount of preservative in it. Urinate into a small, clean container
and then pour the urine into the large container. Do not touch the inside of the container with your fingers.
Keep the large container in the refrigerator for the 24 hours.
Empty your bladder for the final time at or just before the end of the 24-hour period. Add this urine to the large
container and record the time.
Do not get toilet paper, pubic hair, stool (feces), menstrual blood, or other foreign matter in the urine sample.
The skin sweat test for chloride is primarily used to test for cystic fibrosis. To learn more, see the topic Sweat Test.
Results
A chloride test measures the level of chloride in your blood or urine. Chloride is one of the most important electrolytes in
the blood, along with sodium, potassium, and calcium. Chloride helps keep the amount of fluid inside and outside of your
cells in balance.
Normal
The normal values listed here-called a reference range-are just a guide. These ranges vary from lab to lab, and your lab
may have a different range for what's normal. Your lab report should contain the range your lab uses. Also, your doctor
will evaluate your results based on your health and other factors. This means that a value that falls outside the normal
values listed here may still be normal for you or your lab. Blood chloride levels are checked more often than urine chloride
levels. Results are usually available in 1 to 2 days.
Chloride in blood footnote1

Adult: 96-106 milliequivalents per liter (mEq/L) [96-106millimoles

per liter (mmol/L) ]

Newborn: 96-113 mEq/L (96-113 mmol/L)

Chloride in urine footnote1

Adult: 140-250 mEq per 24 hours (140-250 mmol per day)

Child (10-14 64-176 mEq/24 hours (64-176 mmol/day)

years):

Child 15-40 mEq/24 hours (15-40 mmol/day)

(younger
than 6
years):

Abnormal
High chloride levels may be caused by:
Dehydration , such as from diarrhea or vomiting.
Eating a lot of salt.
Kidney disease.
An overactive parathyroid gland (hyperparathyroidism).
Low chloride levels may be caused by:
Conditions that cause too much water to build up in the body, such as with syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic
hormone secretion (SIADH).
Addison's disease .
A condition that raises the pH of the blood above the normal range (metabolic alkalosis).
Heart failure .
Ongoing vomiting.
What Affects the Test
Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:
Taking some medicines, such as corticosteroids , nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) , estrogens, male
hormones (androgens), some blood pressure medicines, cholestyramine, and some "water pills" ( diuretics ).
Failing to collect exactly 24 hours of urine during a 24-hour urine test for chloride.