Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hyonatraemia, defined as serum sodium <135 mmol/l is the commonest electrolyte abnormalities and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe Hyponatraemia in the hospitalised patients and estimate mortality between these three groups and compared to Normonatraemia.

Methods: This is a retrospective audit in patients admitted to hospital from July 2010 to July 2011. The data are obtained from hospital patients’ Registry. The admission sodium is used for statistical comparisons. The hospital governance approved the audit. Normonatraemia is defined as serum sodium 135–144 mmol/l, hyponatraemia <135 mmol/l, and hypernatraemic >145 mmol/l.

Results: The study population was 98 078. The mean age was 55.85 (±S.D. 20.67) and 55.12% males and 44.88% females. 45.26% were over 60 years. Hyponatraemia was observed in 5.05%. There were significant age difference between the different sodium groups with normal range being the youngest and those with severe hyponatraemia, the oldest with men in severe hyponatraemia category (P<0.001) There were significant differences in mortality with lowest mortality in normal group and the highest death rate in hypernatraemic group (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Hyponatraemia as well as hypernatraemia is associated with increased mortality.