Tannor EK, Agyei M, Tannor AY, Ofori A, Akumiah E, Boateng YA. Hyponatraemia as a Predictor of Mortality in Medical Admissions in Ghana: A Comparative Study.
Int J Nephrol 2020;
2020:3145843. [PMID:
33299609 DOI:
10.1155/2020/3145843]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 10/31/2020] [Accepted: 11/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Hyponatraemia is the most common electrolyte abnormality in hospital admissions. It occurs in a quarter of medical admissions in Ghana, and it is associated with high mortality. Mortality has been suggested to be due to the underlying medical condition and not necessarily the hyponatraemia. We set out to compare the outcomes of patients with documented hyponatraemia as compared to those with normonatraemia in terms of mortality and length of hospital stay.
Methods
We conducted a comparative analysis of patients with hyponatraemia and those with normonatraemia on the medical ward at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital between May 2018 and December 2018. The medical diagnoses, demographics, and laboratory data of the patients were recorded. Participants' age and gender were matched. Student's t-test was used to test for differences in continuous variables when parametric and Wilcoxon signed-rank test for nonparametric variables. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify predictors of in-hospital mortality. A p value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
Within the study period, 846 patients with documented serum sodium were included in the study. The study involved 406 patients with hyponatraemia and 440 patients with normonatraemia. Serum albumin and protein were significantly lower in the hyponatraemia patients as compared to those with normonatraemia. The mortality rate in patients with hyponatraemia was significantly higher than those with normonatraemia (129 (31.8%) vs. 9 (22.3%); OR 1.62 (95% CI: 1.19–2.22), p = 0.002). In-hospital stay was longer in patients with hyponatraemia than normonatraemia (7 (4–10) vs. 6 (3–10) days) but not statistically significant (p = 0.09). Multiple logistic regression showed that low serum sodium (p < 0.001) and low serum albumin (p = 0.009) were the predictors of in-hospital mortality.
Conclusion
Hyponatraemia is associated with significantly higher mortality than normonatraemia and predicts worse prognosis in patients on medical admission. Low serum albumin is also a predictor of mortality in medical admission.
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