Effect of low versus high dialysate sodium concentration on blood pressure and endothelial-derived vasoregulators during hemodialysis: a randomized crossover study

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Endothelin-1 in the context of low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

Mixed linear regression was used to compare the effect of dialysate sodium (low vs high) and randomization arm (low-then-high vs high-then-low) on intradialytic changes in endothelin 1, NO2(-), and BP values.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 16 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

16 patients with intradialytic hypertension.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, single-blind, crossover and parallel-group study.

Because people in this Endothelin-1 study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Only one side, usually the patients, was kept unaware of whether Endothelin-1 was given.

In the crossover set-up each of the patients took both Endothelin-1 and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

The Endothelin-1 group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

3-week, 2-arm, randomized, crossover study.

Low (5 mEq/L below serum sodium) versus high (5 mEq/L above serum sodium) dialysate sodium concentration.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Blood Pressure, Dialysis Solutions, Endothelin-1, Endothelium, Vascular, Hypertension, Nitrites and Renal Dialysis.

Author keywords: Intradialytic hypertension, Mechanisms and Treatment of Intradialytic Hypertension–Sodium (MATCH-NA) Study, blood pressure (BP), dialysate sodium concentration, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and endothelin 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, single-blind and crossover study of Endothelin-1 in 16 patients in people with low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Endothelin-1 compound page, Low blood pressure and orthostatic hypotension research.