Intravascular Volemic Assessment of Elderly Hyponatremic Patient Using Non-Invasively Cardiac Echograms

Background: Hyponatremia is a serious, but often overlooked disorder with an increasing incidence in developed countries. In 2007, Expert Panel Recommendations defined strategies for clinicians caring for patients with hyponatremia. Hyponatremia has two types, pseudo and true. The true hyponatremia is due to many causes. The main causes are hypovolemia, euvolemia and hypervolemia. They may reflex the status of intravascular volume. However, it is difficult to grasp the different causes before treatment in patients with true hyponatremia, because that it is difficult to determine status of intravascular volume. Methods: We examined the usefulness of the Central Venous Pressure index (CVP Index) using cardiac echograms with popular to determine the status of intravascular volume before and after treatments in various patients. Results: In preliminary result, the CVP index was lower in patients with hypovolemia before treatment than after treatment, whereas it was higher in patients with hypervolemia before treatment than after treatment. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the CVP Index using noninvasively and popularly cardiac echogram may reflect intravascular volume status in patients with true hyponatremia.