BLOOD PRESSURE RESPONSES TO DIETARY SODIUM MANIPULATION DURING NORMOTENSIVE HUMAN PREGNANCY

SUMMARY 1. Short-term salt loading and salt restriction in a group of normal pregnant women produced no changes in lying, sitting or standing blood pressures or heart rates. 2. Home blood pressures showed no trend to change over the periods of altered salt intake. 3. Although plasma volume and plasma renin activity changed with altered salt intake, there were no relationships between changes in these parameters and changes in mean arterial pressures (MAP) between the low and high salt diets. 4. Capillary permeability and echocardiographic dimensions were unchanged by salt intake once sodium balance had been established.