International Journal of Hypertension (Jan 2018)

Association of Urinary Sodium Excretion with Vascular Damage: A Local Kidney Effect, Rather Than a Marker of Generalized Vascular Impairment

  • Areti Triantafyllou,
  • Panagiota Anyfanti,
  • Eugenia Gkaliagkousi,
  • Xenophon Zabulis,
  • Anastasios Vamvakis,
  • Vasileios Gkolias,
  • Konstantinos Petidis,
  • Spyros Aslanidis,
  • Stella Douma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7620563
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2018

Abstract

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Evidence suggests that increased salt consumption induces blood pressure- (BP) mediated organ damage, yet it remains unclear whether it reflects a generalized micro- and macrovascular malfunction independent of BP. We studied 197 newly diagnosed and never-treated individuals with hypertension, intermediate hypertensive phenotypes, and normal BP, classified by use of 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. Sodium excretion and microalbuminuria were estimated in 24-hour urine samples, dermal capillary density was estimated from capillaroscopy, and arterial stiffness was estimated with pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx). Sodium excretion correlated with microalbuminuria (p<0.001) and 24-hour and day- and nighttime systolic BP, but not with office blood pressure, arterial stiffness, or capillary density. In the multivariate analysis, the association with microalbuminuria was maintained (p=0.007). In a population free from the long-standing effects of hypertension, increased salt intake appears to be associated with early signs of vascular kidney damage, rather than a diffuse micro- and macrovascular impairment.