This article appears in the following NDT Plus issue: SIADH and Hyponatraemia [View the issue table of contents]
SIADH and hyponatraemia: why does it matter?
Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Correspondence: Correspondence and offprint requests to: Ewout J. Hoorn; E-mail: ejhoorn{at}gmail.com
| Abstract |
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The vasopressin-receptor antagonists have received approval for the treatment of hyponatraemia secondary to the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH). It is therefore necessary that physicians encountering hyponatraemia focus on SIADH. Recent studies show that hyponatraemia is often poorly managed—insufficient diagnostic tests are ordered and patients are undertreated. At the same time, it has become clear that chronic hyponatraemia causes neurological symptoms such as gait disturbances and attention deficits. However, physicians often tolerate chronic hyponatraemia as if it were benign, or as if its treatment would cause significant morbidity. Therefore, physicians must reconsider the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to hyponatraemia and SIADH.
Key Words: adrenal insufficiency diagnosis epidemiology vasopressin vasopressin-receptor antagonists
Received for publication August 25, 2009. Accepted for publication September 29, 2009.