S2ALT study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Skin Sodium Accumulation and water baLance in hypertension
IRAS ID
255440
Contact name
Christian Delles
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
It is well known that salt balance is regulated by the kidney and impacts on blood pressure control. However, only in the last decade we became aware that salt accumulates in the skin in poorly controlled high blood pressure, but also with aging or in other conditions like diabetes and renal disease.
Unfortunately we still don’t know if this phenomenon is harmful or protective and, even more importantly, we don’t know how it happens: salt accumulation has been measured only by indirect tools (like magnetic resonance) in humans and it’s still unclear if it is accompanied by water or not. In terms of prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, this would make huge difference.This is a one-off visit study on patients referred to the Glasgow High Blood Pressure Clinic at the Queen Elisabeth University Hospital. Our aim is to study the accumulation of skin salt, measured in a small skin sample, in relation to the water content in the skin, to the mechanisms of skin water and salt control (like sweating and evaporation), to renal excretion of salt and its regulation, as well as to clinical characteristics like age, blood pressure, body weight, medications and presence or absence of other related diseases in a hypertensive population at increased cardiovascular risk.
Patients keen to take part will be offered to undergo a non-invasive analysis of sweat and skin evaporation, blood and urine sampling and a 4 mm skin biopsy on the day of their scheduled visit. A short questionnaire will be used to assess sodium intake. For consenting patients only, we will look at case notes and records to explore associations with skin and other clinical characteristics relevant to cardiovascular disease.
A BHF Centre of Research Excellence Grant and University of Glasgow will fund the research.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
18/WS/0238
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jan 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion