[Estimation of sodium intake in type 2 diabetic patients: Comparative study of Exsel test and 24-hour natriuresis]

To evaluate the Exsel test in order to screen an excessive consumption of salt intake among patients with type 2 diabetes.

In all, 106 patients with type 2 diabetes hospitalized in service A of National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology of Tunis were recruited. The urine collection was done in order to determinate the salt intake predicted by the 24h urinary sodium excretion. The sensibility, specificity, PPV and NPV was calculated and the ROC curve in order to search for the positivity threshold.

The mean age of the population was 55.46±7.51 year and the salt intake predicted by the 24h urinary sodium excretion was 6.22±3.73g/d with 4 patients who had an excessive consumption of salt. The kappa test was 0.9 and the chi-two was 0.7. The sensibility of the test was 25%, specificity was 74%, PPV was 4% and NPV 96%. The area under the curve was 0.577.

The Exsel test does not appear adapted in order to detect an excessive consumption of salt among our Tunisian population with type 2 diabetes.