Reducing Salt Intake Help Control Blood Pressure in Dialysis Patients

Kidney patients trying to control their blood pressure should cut their salt intake to reduce fluid build-up in the blood, suggests an Indian-origin scientist.

According to an analysis, led by Dr. Rajiv Agarwal, (Indiana University School of Medicine and Roudebush VA Medical Center) and Matthew Weir, reducing fluid build-up in the blood is more effective than using antihypertensive medications.

High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure or hypertension is defined as a blood pressure of above 140 mm Hg (systolic) and or 90mm Hg (diastolic).

Dry-weight is a kidney disease patient's weight immediately after dialysis, when he or she does not carry the excess fluid that builds up between dialysis treatments.

Dry-weight is the lowest weight one can safely reach after dialysis without developing symptoms of low blood pressure such as cramping, which can occur when too much fluid is removed.

If a patient lets too much fluid build up between sessions, it is harder to get down to a proper dry-weight.

Dialysis - Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis and Role of Diet and Drugs
Dialysis is an artificial process for removing excess water and waste from the blood. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are the types of dialysis.

Achieving and maintaining dry-weight can improve blood pressure between dialysis sessions and limit hospitalisations.

This appears to be an effective but forgotten strategy in controlling and maintaining blood pressure control among hypertensive patients on dialysis.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

Dialysis Efficiency (Kt/V) Calculator
Dialysis Efficiency Calculator or Kt/V calculator is an interactive tool that indicates how well dialysis is working for you and checks if enough water and waste products are cleared from your blood.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

The researchers looked to see what information is available in the medical literature related to dry-weight and its use in achieving blood pressure control.

Their goal was to provide an overview of the concept of dry-weight: how to assess it and how to achieve it.

The investigators found that dry-weight can be assessed inexpensively through relative plasma volume monitoring (which uses photo-optical technology to assess changes in volume of a patient's blood) and body impedance analysis (which determines lean body mass).

They also discovered that restricting salt intake can help control blood pressure and make it easier for patients to get down to a proper dry-weight.

Studies suggest that salt restriction and dry-weight reduction through dialysis together provide more benefits to the heart than antihypertensive medications.

This could have important clinical implications because most patients with chronic kidney disease die from cardiovascular causes.

The authors concluded that "medication-directed approaches for blood pressure control should be a secondary consideration to manipulating the diet and dialysis prescription in order to achieve dry-weight."

The study has been published in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

Source-ANI
SRM