Journal of hypertension
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Journal of hypertension · Mar 2014
Effect of intensified diuretic therapy on overnight rostral fluid shift and obstructive sleep apnoea in patients with uncontrolled hypertension.
Fluid displacement from the lower extremities to the upper body during sleep is strongly associated with obstructive sleep apnoea in hypertensive patients. The present pathophysiological study tests the hypothesis that intensified diuretic therapy will reduce the apnoea-hypopnoea index and blood pressure of uncontrolled hypertensive patients with obstructive sleep apnoea in proportion to the reduction in overnight change in leg fluid volume. ⋯ The findings provide further evidence that fluid redistribution from the legs to the neck during sleep contributes to the severity of obstructive sleep apnoea in hypertension and may be an important link between these two conditions.
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Journal of hypertension · Mar 2014
Measurement of plasma renin concentration instead of plasma renin activity decreases the positive aldosterone-to-renin ratio tests in treated patients with essential hypertension.
The plasma aldosterone-to-renin ratio (ARR) for the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism is normally calculated with plasma renin activity (PRA) as denominator. However, new direct renin assays that measure plasma renin concentration (PRC) are progressively replacing PRA because these are faster, simpler, and more reproducible. ⋯ The rate of positive tests calculating ARR with PRC is lower than with PRA, the lower rate being found in patients studied in the recumbent position and apparently it is not affected by ongoing antihypertensive treatment.
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Journal of hypertension · Feb 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialDietary sodium influences the effect of mental stress on heart rate variability: a randomized trial in healthy adults.
Dietary sodium influences intermediate physiological traits in healthy adults independent of changes in blood pressure. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that dietary sodium affects cardiac autonomic modulation during mental stress. ⋯ We conclude that autonomic control of HRV at rest and during mental stress is altered by dietary sodium in healthy normotensive young adult men and women.
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Journal of hypertension · Oct 2013
Salt intake in children 10-12 years old and its modification by active working practices in a school garden.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the 24-h urinary sodium excretion in children of 10-12 years at a school in the north of Portugal and to examine the influence on salt intake and blood pressure of three different educational interventions for 6 months. ⋯ Our data indicates that children 10-12 years old have a high salt intake that is well above the proposed recommendations and that a strategy based on theoretical and practical education may achieve in some children an important reduction in daily salt intake which, if maintained over time, may assume important public health implications. These results suggest that in those children a more complete theoretical and practical intervention is more productive and efficient towards reduction of salt intake than single theoretical or no intervention.