.

Gut and Liver

Indexed in PubMed / PubMed central , Elsevier Bibliographic Databases (Scopus & Embase)
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Google Scholar / KoreaMed
Articles

Effect of a Diet with Unrestricted Sodium on Ascites in Patients with Hepatic Cirrhosis

Xi-bing Gu*, Xiao-juan Yang*, Hong-ying Zhu*, and Bo-yu XuΆΣ
*Department of Liver Disease, Wuxi Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Wuxi, and ΆΣDepartment of Internal Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Background/Aims: There has been debate on whether a sodium-restricted diet (SRD) should be used in cirrhotic patients with ascites in China in recent years. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of sodium-restricted and unrestricted diets on plasma renin activity (PRA), renal blood flow (RBF) and ascites in patients with liver cirrhosis. Methods: Two hundred cirrhotic patients with ascites were randomly divided into two groups (98 cases in the sodium-unrestricted diet [SUD] group and 102 cases in the SRD group); 95 patients (96.94%) in the SUD group and 97 patients (95.1%) in the SRD group had post-hepatitis B cirrhosis.
Results: Blood sodium and RBF were higher in SUD group than in SRD group (p<0.001), while PRA were significantly
lower in SUD group than the SRD group 10 days after treatment (p<0.001). Renal impairment caused by low blood sodium was higher in SRD group than in SUD group (p<0.01). Ascites disappeared in higher proportion of patients in SUD group than in SRD group (p<0.001). Conclusions: SUD can increase the level of blood sodium and RBF, and be beneficial
to diuresis and ascite reduction and disappearance. (Gut Liver 2012;6:355-361)
 
KEYWORD
Liver cirrhosis; Ascites; Sodium-unrestricted diet; Albumin; Renal circulation
 
Gut and Liver 2012 Jul; 6(3): 355-361
Submit a manuscript
Register
Sign up for article alerts
Log in