PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ploutarchos Tzoulis
AU  - Pierre Marc Bouloux
TI  - Inpatient hyponatraemia: adequacy of investigation and prevalence of endocrine causes
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.15-1-20
DP  - 2015 Feb 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 20--24
VI  - 15
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/15/1/20.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/15/1/20.full
SO  - Clin Med2015 Feb 01; 15
AB  - This study assessed the effect of endocrine input on the investigation of hyponatraemia and examined the prevalence of endocrine causes of hyponatraemia. This single-centre, retrospective study included 139 inpatients (median age, 74 years) with serum sodium (Na) levels ≤128 mmol/l during hospitalisation at a UK teaching hospital over a three-month period. In total, 61.9% of patients underwent assessment of volume status and 28.8% had paired serum and urine osmolality, and Na measured. In addition, 14.4% of patients received endocrine input; 80% of these patients underwent full work-up of hyponatraemia compared with 5% of patients not referred to endocrine services (p < 0.001; relative risk, 15.86; 95% confidence interval, 7.17–31.06). The prevalence of adrenal insufficiency was 0.7%, but basal serum cortisol levels were not measured in around two-thirds of patients. Despite 26.7% of patients having abnormal thyroid function tests, no patient was diagnosed with severe hypothyroidism. More widespread provision of expert input should be considered.