Hyponatremia for Everyone. #6. Diagnosis and Tests used in Hyponatremia

By Second Medical Opinions PLC | SMO Blog Kidney | 25 Nov 2019

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This post appeared here, as part of a series. The author is the same. The series was published as an ebook, which you can find in Amazon Kindle format and Apple Books Format.

Hyponatremia is diagnosed by reading the report of the electrolyte panel which is done in nearly all patients who have blood tests done in the hospital or in the outpatient setting. Any value of serum sodium concentration lower than 135 mEq/L is considered hyponatremia.

In order to find the reasons for hyponatremia, other tests are used. For example, if hyponatremia is related to elevated blood sugar as one of the previous posts, What Causes Hyponatremia? C, a blood sugar test is needed. A TSH test is used to see if hyponatremia is related to hypothyroidism. Urine sodium and urine potassium are used to calculate if the patient is able to clear water through the urine and to diagnose syndrome of inappropriate secretion of ADH (SIADH), for this, please see What Causes Hyponatremia? D.

If the patient has hyponatremia, the sodium level has to be measured at least daily (and more frequently if the hyponatremia is severe) in order to see if the treatment the patient is receiving is resulting in normalizing the serum sodium level.