Hypertension and Fluid Balance in Dialysis Patients

Abstract

Q1 The majority of haemodialysis patients are hypertensive. Why?

There are likely to be two reasons. First, they may be hypertensive because the disease that was responsible for their kidney failure was associated with or caused hypertension. This is true for patients with hypertensive nephrosclerosis, and for most patients with glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy and polycystic kidney disease. Second, they may be hypertensive because they are overloaded. A direct relation between volume status and blood pressure is well recognised in dialysis patients. The higher the interdialytic weight gain, the greater the pre-dialysis blood pressure and the greater is the decrease in blood pressure during dialysis.