Document Detail


Unpleasant truths about salt restriction.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20331808     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Most chronic dialysis patients are volume overloaded. This has two consequences. The first is hypertension. Even though the pathophysiologic mechanism causing this blood pressure (BP) elevation is well known, many patients are treated with antihypertensive drugs. These are often ineffective and, even if they lower BP, they do not eliminate its cause and the associated cardiac damage. But at least as harmful to the heart as the pressure load is the volume load. In the early phase of dialysis, this may lead to acute pulmonary edema, which is often erroneously referred to as "heart failure." Later, it causes dilatation of the heart compartments, stretching of their walls, and regurgitation through the valves. This dilated cardiomyopathy eventually leads to liver congestion, decreased ejection fraction, and low blood pressure. It is considered to be irreversible and incorrectly called "uremic" by many authors, but can be markedly improved and even cured by judicious ultrafiltration. This may take many months, since the heart muscle needs time to become "remodeled." All these unwanted effects could be prevented by strong dietary salt restriction. We tried to analyze why this and other "old truths" are being forgotten. While the reasons are clearly multifactorial, the unfortunate introduction of the Kt/V concept seems the most important one. The claim that adequacy of dialysis can be solely defined by urea removal, disregarding all other factors, above all salt retention, has diverted the nephrologist's attention from the most important issue, giving them the false conviction that the prescribed treatment is "adequate."
Authors:
Ercan Ok; Evert J Dorhout Mees
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Seminars in dialysis     Volume:  23     ISSN:  1525-139X     ISO Abbreviation:  Semin Dial     Publication Date:    2010 Jan-Feb
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-03-24     Completed Date:  2010-07-20     Revised Date:  2010-11-10    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8911629     Medline TA:  Semin Dial     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1-3     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Ege University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey. ercan.ok@ege.edu.tr
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Blood Volume
Diet, Sodium-Restricted*
Heart Diseases / etiology,  prevention & control
Humans
Hypertension / etiology,  prevention & control
Renal Dialysis* / adverse effects

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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