Relationship between serum sodium and blood pressure in morbid obesity

We evaluated the relationship between blood pressure and serum sodium level in morbidly obese patients. Forty patients had at least 2-3 blood pressure measurements and two measurements of serum sodium. The correlation between serum sodium and systolic blood pressure was 0.66 (p less than 0.01). The correlation between diastolic pressure and serum sodium was 0.40 (p less than 0.025). Our observation linking serum sodium to blood pressure provides a lead to study mechanisms common to regulation of blood sodium and blood pressure in morbid obesity.