To study the levels of serum sodium and potassium in newly diagnosed essential hypertensive patients

Abstract

Background: Essential hypertension comprises more than 90% of hypertension. Unfortunately even in developed nations like the United States, around fifty million subjects are diagnosed with hypertension. An acute high intake of sodium in the form of salty meals, leads to a temporary rise in blood pressure and is associated with several other significant diseases. The present study was conducted with the aim to study the levels of serum sodium and potassium in newly diagnosed essential hypertensive patients. Materials and methods: The study consisted of 100 newly diagnosed primary hypertensive patients attending the medicine OPD . Around 100 healthy people were kept as controls. Subjects below 30 years of age or subjects with any other co morbidities were excluded from the study. All the peripheral pulses were checked. The blood pressure was measured using the standard guidelines. Overnight (12 hour) fasting blood sugar, urea, serum creatinine, sodium and potassium were estimated . All the data thus obtained was arranged in a tabulated form and analysed using SPSS software. Results: There were 8% underweight subjects with Grade II hypertension. Overweight subjects were 6% with Grade I hypertension and 14% with Grade II hypertension. The mean systolic pressure was 174.15 ± 15.10 amongst cases and 104.23 ± 6.36 amongst the controls. The mean sodium level amongst the cases was 146.45 +/-4.55 while that amongst the controls was 169.8 +/-3.25. Conclusion: Our study shows a positive correlation between hypertension and sodium levels. Hypertensive subjects had increased sodium levels.