Effects of salt loading and potassium supplement on the circadian blood pressure profile in salt-sensitive Chinese patients

摘要

Background and objectiveSalt-sensitive (SS) patients more frequently showed a nondipper blood pressure pattern and were associated with more serious target organ damage than non-SS patients. We aimed to investigate whether potassium supplement can improve the blunted nocturnal blood pressure fall in SS patients exposed to a high-salt diet.Patients and methodsApproximately 49 normotensive and mildly hypertensive Chinese patients received a study protocol of a 3 days of baseline examination, 7 days of a low-salt diet (3g NaCl/day), 7 days of a high-salt diet (18g NaCl/day), and 7 days of a high-salt diet with a potassium supplement (18g NaCl and 4.5g KCl/day). The 24h ambulatory blood pressure was determined at the end of each period.ResultsA total of 14 patients were classified as SS according to the at least 10% increase in their 24-h mean arterial pressure after high-salt loading. The night-to-day blood pressure ratio was significantly higher in SS patients than in non-SS patients during the high-salt loading period (systolic 0.960.01 vs. 0.89 +/- 0.01, P<0.01; diastolic 0.96 +/- 0.01 vs. 0.92 +/- 0.01, P<0.05). Compared with the high-salt loading period, the night-to-day blood pressure ratio was significantly reversed by potassium supplement in SS patients (systolic 0.91 +/- 0.01 vs. 0.96 +/- 0.01, P<0.05; diastolic 0.91 +/- 0.01 vs. 0.96 +/- 0.01, P<0.05).ConclusionPotassium supplement can improve the blunted nocturnal blood pressure fall in SS patients exposed to a high-salt diet, but the related mechanism needs to be studied further. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.