This is a summary of a presentation I attended at the National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meeting on 10 April 2025. For a full list of presentations and summaries I attended, check out my other post here.

Speaker: Linda Fried

Objectives:

1. Review physiology and pathology of hyperkalemia
2. Describe effective dietary interventions that prioritise cardiorenal protection
3. Discuss newer potassium binders

Potassium Balance

98% of the potassium in the body is in the intracellular fluid.

Serum potassium is controlled by two processes:

1. External balance – intake and excretion
2. Internal balance

Mechanisms of potassium homeostasis:

• Sensing K intake in GI tract
• Sense extracellular potassium levels

The intestine detects potassium-rich meals and stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin, which helps move potassium into the cells. A rise in the concentration of potassium in the extra-cellular fluid (ECF) increases potassium uptake into the muscles. Finally, at the end of the process, the kidneys will excrete any remaining excess potassium through the urine.

Factors impacting the external balance of potassium:

• Dietary potassium load
• Salt substitutes containing potassium additives
• Medications containing potassium (potassium supplements)

How does the body excrete potassium?

• 90% excreted renally, through the urine
• The body loses small amounts of potassium through the skin and in sweat.
• GI tract, fecal excretion of potassium

What promotes K excretion in the kidney?

• eGFR
• distal tubular flow rate
• Distal sodium delivery
• Aldosterone
• Non-resorbable anions

What causes hyperkalemia?

1. Excessive potassium intake
2. Decreased renal excretion related to:
   1. Renal insufficiency- related to: decreased distal tubular flow from volume depletion, CHF, cirrhosis or mineralocorticoid Deficiency
   1. Distal tubular dysfunction – commonly seen in diabetes and urinary retention

You need both factors to get hyperkalemia.  It is hard to eat so much potassium to get hyperkalemia if renal excretion is working well.

Medications that increase hyperkalemia risk

• NSAIDs
• RAASi
• MRA
• Potassium sparing diuretics
• Beta blockers
• Calcineurin inhibitors
• Heparin
• Trimethoprim

What is a normal serum potassium?

Normal potassium mean is around 4mmol/L. But as eGFR declines more patients will have higher potassium.

Who gets hyperkalemia?

People who have previously had hyperkalemia are more likely to get hyperkalemia again.  Recurrence rates are about 36%. Higher risk groups are older age, diabetes, lower eGFR, history of MI or CHF, use of RAASi. Lower risk groups are women, younger age, higher eGFR, use of diuretics.

What factors determine how much potassium dialysis removes?

The key factors are the dialysate bath and the serum potassium levels. Potassium levels typically go down during the dialysis treatment and then rebound up after dialysis. However consider that the greater the change in the serum potassium during the dialysis session, the higher the risk of arrhythmia during the dialysis session.

In dialysis patients, there is a higher risk of hyperkalemia:

• During longer periods between dialysis session (e.g. the dialysis weekend)
• More common in younger patient
• Associated with mortality – lowest risk is 4.6-5.3mmol/L for dialysis patients

What are the risks of hyperkalemia?

Associated with increased risk of death, renal replacement therapy and adverse CVD outcomes.  But we don’t know if the relationship is direct or indirect (e.g. is it that people who get hyperkalemia are more sick? they stopped taking life saving medications and this increases their mortality or was it the hyperkalemia itself?). That being said, in some cases where potassium levels get extremely high, the resulting EKG changes can become so severe that they cause death.

In a study of people who were taking RAASi and had them stopped due to hyperkalemia, there was a higher mortality risk.

Summary:

• Potassium levels are managed by internal and external balance
• Incidence of hyperkalemia increases with lower eGFR, DM, CVD and RAASi
• Hyperkalemia is associated with increased mortality
• Discontinuation of RAASi is common with hyperkalemia, and is associated with mortality.

Can patients with CKD Eat Healthy and Avoid Hyperkalemia?

Speaker: Annabel Biruete PhD RD

Outline:

• Factors influencing development of hyperkalemia
• Relationship between dietary K intake and serum
• K restriction – should we restrict?
• Healthy dietary patterns and K in CKD
  Strategies to managing low K diet

What factors influence development of hyperkalemia?

• After a high-potassium meal, the small intestine absorbs some potassium, which defines post-prandial hyperkalemia.
  • The body also does not absorb all potassium from food. Some potassium from food will be excreted in the feces.
• As kidney function declines, colonic potassium excretion increases
• Several factors impact how much potassium the cell takes up.
  • CHO rich meal stimulates insulin release which increase K uptake. However acidosis and muscle wasting may lead to decreased potassium uptake
  • Exercise increased K uptake by the cells
• Decreased kidney function or RAASi will decrease urinary potassium excretion

There is an assumption that dietary potassium intake drives serum potassium.  But observational studies suggest that this relationship is weak.  Several studies have reported no association with intake and serum levels.

(Just a quick aside — the speaker didn’t explain how potassium intake was assessed, which matters in observational studies. You can find more on that in my previous posts here.)

What foods are restricted in low potassium diets?

Many online resources recommend restricting foods without mention of portion sizes or cooking methods.  These classic low potassium diets lead to the opposite recommendations for a cardioprotective diet.

Key nutrient factors that impact potassium handling to consider in hyperkalemia management

Key modifiable factors of the diet include:

• Fibre – increase intake to reduce constipation and reduce the bio accessibility of potassium from foods
• CHO content of meals – insulin secretion helps increased cellular potassium intake
• Acid-base balance – fruits and vegetables help avoid extracellular K

Do plant-based diets improve CKD and hyperkalemia management?

Unfortunately, we do not have intervention studies including people who have hyperkalemia or have a high risk of hyperkalemia, so we don’t know if plant-based diets are safe. The speaker thinks that probably yes.

So here are the steps the speakers proposes to implement a low potassium diet:

• Step 1: Try to avoid restrict lists and diets
• Step 2: Modulate potassium content of foods and meals
  • Limit portion size. Prepare foods using wet cooking methods (discard the water)
  • Avoid potassium additives in ultra-processed foods
• Step 3: Increase fibre intake
  • High fibre K foods likely are lower in bioaccessible K, and have an alkali effect
  • Recommend viscous and bulking fibres to enhance transit time
• Step 4: Provide culturally appropriate recommendations

Summary:

• Several factors other than food that impact the development of hyperkalemia
• Dietary patterns that promote cardiorenal health are possible
• Clinicians can use different modifications to lower potassium

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My key take-aways

My favourite part of this presentation was the step-by step guide to implementing a low potassium diet. The speakers proposed steps were:

• Step 1: Try to avoid restrict lists and diets
• Step 2: Modulate potassium content of foods and meals
  • Limit portion size. Prepare foods using wet cooking methods (discard the water)
  • Avoid potassium additives in ultra-processed foods
• Step 3: Increase fibre intake
  • High fibre K foods likely are lower in bioaccessible K, and have an alkali effect
  • Recommend viscous and bulking fibres to enhance transit time
• Step 4: Provide culturally appropriate recommendations