Recurrent Intermittent Hyponatremia: low sodium levels, a few hours daily, several consecutive days

What is it about?

We described a new condition, Recurrent Intermittent Hyponatremia in an animal model. In this condition, we induced low sodium blood levels (hyponatremia) for a few hours every day on seven consecutive days. The sodium levels returned to normal every morning, before we induced the hyponatremia again. We found that this is enough to induce water accumulation in the brain, which can lead to symptoms and central nervous system dysfunction. We looked at brain swelling with magnetic resonance imaging and we studied brain tissue to see which were the most affected cells. It seems water accumulates in astrocytes, the cells that surround neurons, in the gray matter and that are essential for good neuronal function.

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Photo by Anderson Rian on Unsplash

Photo by Anderson Rian on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Until now, we thought that acute hyponatremia (low sodium blood levels that develop fast) that resolved quickly did not have any lasting effects. This model proves that acute hyponatremia, even if it recovers in 24h, when repeated over several days actually induces brain changes. This is important because there are situations in human clinical practice where this situation could occur and go unnoticed (such as liver cirrhosis or heart failure on water pills), although this will have to be explored in the future.

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