Abstract
BackgroundLittle is known about salt taste dysfunction among hemodialysis (HD) patients. This study aimed to elucidate the prevalence of salt taste dysfunction and its relationship with interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) among HD patients.MethodsA single-center cross-sectional study involving 99 maintenance HD patients was conducted in September 2015. Salt taste threshold was measured using a salt-impregnated test strip. Salt taste dysfunction was defined as a recognition threshold of ≥0.8%. IDWG was calculated as the mean value of weight gain at the beginning of each week during a 1-month period before the taste test. We performed a multivariate analysis using the standard linear regression model to investigate the association between salt taste dysfunction and IDWG.ResultsAmong the 99 participants, 42% had a recognition threshold of 0.6%, whereas 38% had a recognition threshold of ≥1.6%. Overall, the prevalence of salt taste dysfunction was 58%. The mean (±SD) IDWG was 4.9% (±1.7%), and there was no significant difference in IDWG between the two groups with (4.9%) and without (4.8%) salt taste dysfunction (P = 0.90). A multivariate analysis indicated that salt taste dysfunction is not significantly associated with IDWG (mean difference = 0.06; 95% confidence interval = − 0.27 to 0.40).ConclusionsThe prevalence of salt taste dysfunction was very high among HD patients who had a unique distribution of salt taste recognition thresholds with two peaks. We found no significant association between salt taste dysfunction and IDWG.
Highlights
Little is known about salt taste dysfunction among hemodialysis (HD) patients
We hypothesized that the prevalence of salt taste dysfunction is higher among HD patients and that salt taste dysfunction has a significant role in increasing their interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) through higher salt intake followed by increased fluid intake, as observed in general and non-dialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) populations [8]
We explored the factors associated with salt taste dysfunction, including age, sex, HD vintage, smoking, dentures, diabetes, use of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, and zinc level, by estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the likelihood of having salt taste dysfunction using a multivariable logistic regression model
Summary
Little is known about salt taste dysfunction among hemodialysis (HD) patients. This study aimed to elucidate the prevalence of salt taste dysfunction and its relationship with interdialytic weight gain (IDWG) among HD patients. A previous study demonstrated that salt taste dysfunction was common in non-dialysis CKD patients, and that there was a positive correlation between salt taste dysfunction and salt intake [8]. Previous studies have demonstrated that excessive salt intake increased the salt taste function threshold [18] and that the administration of zinc [19] and a 1-week in-hospital CKD education program. To date, little is known about salt taste dysfunction among HD patients and its relationship with IDWG.
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