Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: To study the prevalence and causes of hyponatremia in patients with various endocrine diseases.

Methods: We had retrospectively analyzed the results of biochemical laboratory studies performed during one calendar month at the tertiary care clinic for endocrinology patients for the variations in the serum sodium concentrations. Blood sodium levels <135 mmol/l were considered as hyponatremia. For all patients with hyponatriemia addition data including demographics, clinical diagnosis of primary and comorbid conditions, physical and instrumental examination records, duration of hospitalization were accessed through electronic patient’s chart.

Results: During this period a total of 1511 studies of serum sodium were performed, including hyponatremia was observed in 1.0% of patients (15/1511, 3 men/12 women). Hyponatremia occurred four times more frequently in hospitalized patients than those undergoing outpatient examination/treatment – 0.8 vs 0.2% respectively. The average age of patients with hyponatremia was 48.6 years (0.75, 85). Length of hospital stay among patients with hyponatremia on average was 26.5 days, with two patients were observed in the out-patient conditions, length of stay remaining patients ranged from 6 to 116 days. Development of hyponatremia was multifactorial and the causes included: use of diuretics – 46.7% of cases, exacerbation of adrenal insufficiency – 40%, nephropathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus – 20%, redistributional hyponatremia in decompensated type 1 diabetes mellitus due to hyperglycaemia – 6.7%, loss of sodium through the post-operative drainage from the abdominal cavity – 6.7%, acute urinary infection – 6.7%.

Conclusion: The overall prevalence of hyponatremia in patients with endocrine disorders is about 1%. Pathogenesis of hyponatremia in most cases multifactorial and most often associated with the use of diuretics, presence hypocorticism and renal disease.