[Prevalence and description of hyponatremia in internal medicine departments of the France west area. A "one day" multicentric descriptive study].
OBJECTIVE
Few data are available on the prevalence and causes of hyponatremia in medical setting and to our knowledge, no recent descriptive study has been performed about hyponatremias in the French Departments of internal medicine.


METHODS
A "one day" descriptive multicentric study was performed in the medicine departments of the France West area. A questionnaire was mailed to physicians who had to take part in a annual regional meeting about "hyponatremias", one month later. Hyponatremia was defined by a blood sodium level under the normal value of the local laboratory. Each internist had to precise for all hyponatremias in course at the study day, the exact value, the discovery circumstances, the mechanisms and etiologies, the associated diseases, the course and treatments.


RESULTS
Seventy-four hyponatremias were identified. The overall prevalence was 12,1%. The prevalence of severe hyponatremias (under 120 mmol/l) was 1,1%. These latter represented 9,4% of the whole hyponatremias (7/74). Associated symptoms and diseases, the mechanisms, the suspected etiologies, the course and treatments are described in detail.


CONCLUSIONS
This multicentric study reports for the first time the prevalence, the clinical and etiological characteristics of hyponatremias coming from Internal Medecine Departments of the West area from France. The overall prevalence is lower in comparison with values usually reported in hospitalized patients, but the frequency of severe and moderate hyponatremias, the mechanisms and the suspected etiologies are identical to those reported in others countries.
Pottier
P
P
Service de médecine interne A, Hôtel-Dieu, CHU de Nantes, place Alexis-Ricordeau, 44093 Nantes cedex 01, France. pierre.pottier@univ-nantes.fr
Agard
C
C
Trewick
D
D
Planchon
B
B
Barrier
J
J
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D007010:Hyponatremia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires