Clinical profile of patients with hyponatremia in a tertiary care hospital in the sub-Himalayan region

Risk factors for hyponatremia in acute exacerbation chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD): a multicenter cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Hyponatremia is an independent predictor of poor prognosis, including increased mortality and readmission, in COPD patients. Identifying modifiable etiologies of hyponatremia may help reduce adverse events in patients with AECOPD. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the risk factors and underlying etiologies of hyponatremia in AECOPD patients.

METHODS

A total of 586 AECOPD patients were enrolled in this multicenter cross-sectional study. Finally, 323 had normonatremia, and 90 had hyponatremia. Demographics, underlying diseases, comorbidities, symptoms, and laboratory data were collected. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was used to select potential risk factors, which were substituted into binary logistic regression to identify independent risk factors. Nomogram was built to visualize and validate binary logistics regression model.

RESULTS

Nine potential hyponatremia-associated variables were selected by LASSO regression. Subsequently, a binary logistic regression model identified that smoking status, rate of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), anion gap (AG), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and serum magnesium (Mg²⁺) were independent variables of hyponatremia in AECOPD patients. The AUC of ROC curve of nomogram was 0.756. The DCA curve revealed that the nomogram could yielded more clinical benefits if the threshold was between 10% and 52%.

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, our results showed that smoking status, CAP, AG, ESR, and serum Mg²⁺ were independently associated with hyponatremia in AECOPD patients. Then, these findings indicate that pneumonia, metabolic acidosis, and hypomagnesemia were the underlying etiologies of hyponatremia in AECOPD patients. However, their internal connections need further exploration.

Do the etiology of hyponatremia and serum sodium levels affect the length of hospital stay in geriatric patients with hyponatremia?

Background

Hyponatremia can lead to a prolonged hospital stay and increased morbidity and mortality rates in geriatric patients. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of hyponatremia etiology and serum sodium (Na) levels on hospitalisation time in geriatric patients hospitalised due to hyponatremia.

Methods

The demographic characteristics, laboratory data, etiology of hyponatremia, and length of hospital stay were retrospectively recorded for 132 patients over 65 years of age who were hospitalised for hyponatremia.

Results

Of the 132 patients, 90 were female (68.2%), and 42 were male (31.8%). The serum Na levels of 66 (50%) patients were <120 mmol/L, those of 64 (48.5%) patients were 120-129 mmol/L, and those of two (1.5%) patients were >130 mmol/L. One hundred nine (82.6%) patients had hypoosmolar hyponatremia, 14 (10.6%) patients had isoosmolar hyponatremia, and nine (6.8%) patients had hyperosmolar hyponatremia. Also, 19.7% of the patients were hypovolemic, 37.9% were euvolemic, and 42.4% were hypervolemic. Hyponatremia etiology was congestive heart failure in 38 (28.8%) patients, syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone in 29 (22.0%) patients, gastrointestinal fluid loss in 24 (18.2%) patients, renal pathologies in 20 (15.2%) patients, the presence of drugs in 20 (15.2%) patients, and hypocortisolemia in one (0.8%) patient. The mean length of hospital stay for the patients was five (1-60) days. There was no statistically significant difference between the lengths of hospital stay based on hyponatremia etiology and serum Na levels (p=0.861 and p=0.076). It was observed that the lengths of stay for patients who developed hyponatremia during their hospitalisation in various clinics were longer than those for patients who presented to the emergency department (p<0.001).

Conclusions

In this study, it was determined that the length of hospital stay did not change with the etiology of hyponatremia and serum Na level at the time of admission, but patients who developed hyponatremia during their hospitalisation had longer hospitalisation times.