ESTIMATION OF URINARY SODIUM

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Abstract
The difficulties encountered in maintaining patients on strict low sodium diets are numerous and well known. Our experience with several hundred hypertensive and cardiac outpatients treated over a three year period with low sodium diets1indicates that some difficulties can be avoided by having each patient perform daily a simple test which gives a fairly reliable estimate of the sodium intake for the preceding twentyfour hours. By performing this test the patient is able to detect errors in his dietary practices. The procedure is simple and inexpensive, requires a minimum of apparatus and is carried out by the patient each day on a specimen of urine collected before breakfast. The necessary materials can be secured from any drug store. In 1920 Allen2emphasized the necessity for close observation of the output of sodium chloride in the urine of patients maintained on salt-free diets. Dietary errors unrecognized by both

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