Volume,Sodium and Blood Pressure Management in HD

"1\. Lower sodium intervention:~1. Dietary sodium restriction of ≤2.0 g/day or ≤85 mmol/day (approximately \>180-200mmol/day in the average American diet). Sodium restriction will be implemented using intensive dietary counseling performed weekly by a registered study dietitian using the motivational interviewing technique.~2. Lower dialysate sodium at 137 mmol/L, if perchance a different concentration of dialysate is used for the enrolled individual, although this is unlikely in both the UM associated units, where for some time now, dialysate concentration of 137 mmol/L is currently being used as standard practice. Investigators will ensure that this sodium concentration is indeed used for all study participants."

The existing target post-HD weight will be progressively challenged by removing additional fluid in small increments, unless clinical evidence of volume depletion or hypotension precludes this challenge in the intervention arm. To avoid the occurrence of intradialytic hypotension, the ultrafiltration rate shall not exceed15 ml/kg/hour and post dialysis weight will not be reduced by more than 0.5 kg per dialysis session. In some patients, this may warrant prolongation of the treatment time to achieve lowering of target post dialysis weight, and this process of target weight reduction may need to continue up to and through the interim assessment phase (6-8 weeks).