[The role of chlorides in sodium-induced "salt-sensitive" hypertension]

Older and more recent evidence indicates that the anion accompanying sodium plays an important role in determining whether or not the administration of a sodium load leads to an increase arterial in blood pressure. This review describes animal and human studies in which blood pressure responses to sodium administration, with or without chloride, were determined. The evidence suggests that sodium and chloride together combine to increase blood pressure in salt-sensitive models and patients. The observations have relevance to the understanding of the pathogenesis of hypertension. They also have clinical relevance, since some food sources may have an abundance of one or the other ion.