
These questions belong to Part 2 of our feature on Hot Topics in Hyperkalemia. Please find Part 1 at the following link
Several populations are known to present a higher risk of experiencing HK episodes. A large observational retrospective cohort study, conducted in Japan, examined hospital claims database for over 1,000,000 patients to determine the cumulative incidence of HK (K+≥ 5.1 mEq/L) episodes in the overall and in specific populations. Findings indicate the incidence is more than 5 times higher in the chronic kidney disease (CKD) population than in the general population, and that people living with heart failure (HF), diabetes (DM) and hypertension are also most likely to experience HK episode. Moreover, in all studied groups (including the overall cohort), incidence of HK was higher with RAASi use1. A large retrospective study led in the United States, with over 2.2M patients, indicates that the prevalence of HK in the overall population was 1.57% in 2015, while it reached 6.35% among patients with CKD and/or HF. This study also showed that 48.43% of HK patients had CKD and/or HF2.
- Kashihara et al. Kidney Int Rep. 2019 May 30;4(9):1248-1260
- Betts et al. Curr Med Res Opin. 2018 Jun;34(6):971-978.