For my second site evaluation, I chose the journal article “Treatment Options for Hyponatremia in Heart Failure” by Steven R. Goldsmith and my presentation was of a patient which I discuss in my H&P (2). More details about the patient are discussed under my site evaluation presentation summary.

I chose this article because the patient I presented was an elderly woman who was diagnosed with new-onset congestive heart failure with hyponatremia. I wanted to see if there were other pharmacologic options for treating hyponatremia and CHF in a patient without severely risking further depletion of sodium. The article I chose is older but at the time was exploring other treatment options for treating hyponatremia in the setting of CHF. The article discusses the use of V2 and V1 (Vasopressin) receptor antagonists (VRAs) “Vaptans” which at the time were fairly new pharmacologic therapies. At the time, I was not familiar with these drugs and wanted to learn more about them and their efficacy in treating hyponatremia in the setting of CHF. I learned from the article and further research that vaptans are quite efficient for treating hyponatremia, particularly in the settings of hypervolemia and euvolemia. Nevertheless, it seems fluid restriction and the use of loop diuretics remains the more commonly used approach to cases such as this.