The stroke-prone spontaneously hyperten- sive rat (SHRSP) is a genetically determined model of "salt- sensitive" stroke and hypertension whose full phenotypic expression is said to require a diet high in Na~+ and low in K~+. We tested the hypothesis that dietary Cl~- determines the phenotypic expression of the SHRSP. In the SHRSP fed a normal NaCl diet, supplementing dietary K+ with KCl exac- erbated hypertension, whereas supplementing either KHCO3 or potassium citrate (KB/C) attenuated hypertension, when blood pressure (BP) was measured radiotelemetrically, di- rectly and continually. Supplemental KCl, but not KB/C, induced strokes, which occurred in all and only those rats in the highest quartiles of both BP and plasma renin activity (PRA).
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