Correction of Serum Sodium for Glucose Concentration in Hemodialysis Patients With Poor Glucose Control

Abstract

As a rule of thumb in clinical medicine, the serum sodium concentration decreases by 1.6 mEq/l for every 100 mg/dl increase in glucose concentration due to water shifts from the intracellular to the extracellular compartment (1). This correction factor is based on theoretical considerations and has not been well validated. An experimental study in healthy subjects found significantly greater decreases in sodium concentration than expected when using the standard correction factor, especially when glucose concentrations were above 400 mg/dl (2). It was suggested that a correction factor of 2.4 mEq/l per 100 mg/dl increase in glucose concentration might be a better overall estimate of the association between the serum sodium and glucose concentrations (2). Exact …