Australian National Health and Medical Research Council dietary salt study in mild hypertension.

Two-hundred-and-twelve untreated subjects (mean age 52.3 +/- 0.8 years; 181 males and 31 females) with a diastolic blood pressure between 90 and 100 mmHg were recruited to the study. Subjects were seen fortnightly and, after 4 pre-diet visits, were randomized into a normal diet group (A, 55 subjects), a high-potassium diet group (B, 52 subjects receiving greater than 100 mmol K+/day) a reduced-sodium diet group (C, 52 subjects receiving 50-75 mmol Na+/day) or a high-potassium and low-sodium diet group (D, 53 subjects receiving same Na+ and K+ as groups B and C). Two-hundred subjects completed the diet phase of 12 weeks. Urine sodium fell to 86 +/- 7 mmol/day in group C and 73 +/- 6 mmol/day in group D, while daily potassium excretion rose to 96 +/- 5 mmol in group B and 87 +/- 4 mmol in group C. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure fell by 3.8 +/- 1.0 and 1.6 +/- 0.6 mmHg respectively in the normal diet group. The falls in systolic and diastolic blood pressures (mmHg) in the diet phase were 7.7 +/- 1.1 and 4.7 +/- 0.7 (B), 8.9 +/- 1.0 and 5.8 +/- 0.6 (C) and 7.9 +/- 0.9 and 4.2 +/- 0.7 (D). These falls were all greater than those in the control group on an intention-to-treat analysis (P less than 0.005) but did not differ from each other. Factorial analysis confirmed that the falls in pressure attributable to the low-sodium diet and high-potassium diet were not additive.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)