Hyponatremia occurs when your blood sodium level goes below 135 mEq/L. When the sodium level in your blood is too low, extra water goes into your cells and makes them swell. This swelling can be dangerous especially in the brain, since the brain cannot expand past the skull.
What organs are affected by hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia can result from multiple diseases that often are affecting the lungs, liver or brain, heart problems like congestive heart failure, or medications.
What is the most severe complication of hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia can produce a wide range of disturbances involving almost all body systems, but the most relevant and potentially lethal involve the CNS. As noted above, acute severe hyponatremia, if left untreated, causes cerebral edema that can lead to coma, irreversible neurologic damage, and even death [1, 21].
Can hyponatremia affect the kidneys?
Hyponatremia could also indicate an impaired renal dilution capability in CKD patients. As CKD progresses, renal sodium loss because of impaired tubular reabsorption and osmotic disequilibrium between the luminal fluid and medullary interstitial impair dilution42.
Does hyponatremia affect the heart?
Hyponatremia is also due to diuretic use in an attempt to manage volume overload. When hyponatremia occurs, it is a marker of heart failure severity and identifies patients with increased mortality.
How does low sodium affect the body?
Low blood sodium is common in older adults, especially those who are hospitalized or living in long-term care facilities. Signs and symptoms of hyponatremia can include altered personality, lethargy and confusion. Severe hyponatremia can cause seizures, coma and even death.
What is the most common cause of hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia is decrease in serum sodium concentration < 136 mEq/L (< 136 mmol/L) caused by an excess of water relative to solute. Common causes include diuretic use, diarrhea, heart failure, liver disease, renal disease, and the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH).
Why does hyponatremia cause brain swelling?
When hyponatremia occurs, the resulting decrease in plasma osmolality (with the exception of the rare cases of non-hypoosmotic hyponatremia) causes water movement into the brain in response to the osmotic gradient, thus causing cerebral edema [7,8] (Figure 1b).
What are potential complications of hyponatremia?
Complications related to hyponatremia include rhabdomyolysis, seizures, permanent neurologic sequelae related to ongoing seizures or cerebral edema, respiratory arrest, and death.
What happens when your body is low on electrolytes?
When your body becomes low on electrolytes, it can impair your body’s functions, such as blood clotting, muscle contractions, acid balance, and fluid regulation. Your heart is a muscle, so that means electrolytes help regulate your heartbeat.
Why does hyponatremia occur in renal failure?
Kidney failure – the kidneys cannot get rid of extra fluid from the body. Congestive heart failure – excess fluid builds up in the body. Diuretics (water pills) – makes the body get rid of more sodium in the urine.
How does liver disease cause hyponatremia?
Hyponatremia is a frequent complication of advanced cirrhosis related to an impairment in the renal capacity to eliminate solute-free water that causes a retention of water that is disproportionate to the retention of sodium, thus causing a reduction in serum sodium concentration and hypo-osmolality.
Can low sodium levels cause urinary tract infection?
Background: Hyponatremia is the most common electrolyte abnormality in clinical practice, but little is known about the association between febrile urinary tract infection (UTI) and hyponatremia or its significance to clinical outcomes.
Can hyponatremia cause arrhythmia?
Hyponatremia is associated with occurrence of atrial fibrillation in outpatients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Hellenic J Cardiol.
Can hyponatremia cause pleural effusion?
In euvolemic hyponatremia, total body sodium concentration is near normal so there should be no evidence of ECFV depletion or excess, that is, no peripheral edema, ascites, pulmonary congestion, or pleural effusions.
Can hyponatremia cause chest pain?
Seek immediate medical care (call 911) if you have serious symptoms of low sodium, such as a change in mental status (confusion or hallucinations); a change in level of consciousness, such as passing out or unresponsiveness; chest pain or pressure; convulsions; muscle spasms; muscle cramps; muscle weakness; nausea with
What is severe hyponatremia?
Severe hyponatremia is often defined as PNa level under 120 mmol/L and may lead to seizures, obtundation, coma, and respiratory arrest (Ayus et al., 1985; Sterns et al., 1994; Halawa et al., 2011; Spasovski et al., 2014).
How do you fix hyponatremia?
In general, hyponatremia is treated with fluid restriction (in the setting of euvolemia), isotonic saline (in hypovolemia), and diuresis (in hypervolemia). A combination of these therapies may be needed based on the presentation. Hypertonic saline is used to treat severe symptomatic hyponatremia.
What is a dangerously low sodium level?
The definition of a low sodium level is below 135 milliequivalents per liter (meq/l). Severe hyponatremia occurs when levels drop below 125 meq/l. Health issues arising from extremely low sodium levels may be fatal.
What is the most common cause of hypernatremia?
Two common causes of hypernatremia are insufficient fluid intake and too much water loss. In rare cases, consuming too much sodium can cause hypernatremia to occur. The opposite of hypernatremia is hyponatremia. This condition occurs when a person’s serum sodium level is less than 135 mEq/l.
What causes hypovolemic hyponatremia?
Hypovolemic hyponatremia is a result of fluid losses either from the kidneys (most commonly due to iatrogenic overdiuresis) or from the gastrointestinal tract (i.e., diarrhea). Patients typically will have signs of dehydration and findings of prerenal azotemia due to the contraction of the total plasma volume.
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