title: Treatment of borderline hypertension--moderate salt restriction in the treatment of borderline hypertension.
abstract: Seventeen patients with borderline hypertension and 11 patients with sustained hypertension were instructed to reduce their salt intake to 5-8 g/day. We checked whether or not the patients were following instructions by estimating their 24-hour urinary sodium excretion (UNaV). In borderline hypertension, the UNaV was 5.6 +/- 0.4g/24-hour on a normal salt diet and 3.7 +/- 0.3 (p less than 0.01) on a salt-restricted diet, while in sustained hypertension it was 4.9 +/- 0.3g and 3.6 +/- 0.4g/24-hour (p less than 0.01), respectively. After moderate salt restriction there was a significant fall in blood pressure in the supine, sitting and standing positions in both the borderline and the sustained hypertensives. There was a significant relationship between the fall of mean blood pressure in the supine position and the decrease in the 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, which was corrected for 24-hour creatinine excretion, in overall hypertensive patients (r = 0.39, p less than 0.05). In the borderline hypertensive group, both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the sitting position were 8.7 mmHg or 6.3% (p less than 0.01) and 6.2 mmHg or 6.6% lower (p less than 0.01) on salt-restricted diets than those on normal salt diets, respectively. In 9 of 14 patients with borderline hypertension, the diastolic blood pressure moved into the normal range during the salt restriction. We suggest that moderate salt restriction is an effective management of borderline hypertension.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D004039:Diet, Sodium-Restricted; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009318:Natriuresis