DIURETIC ACTION OF POTASSIUM SALTS

Abstract

For two centuries certain potassium salts have been employed as diuretics in clinical medicine. In 1679 Thomas Willis¹recommended the use of potassium nitrate or "salt of niter" in the treatment of dropsy. Wilks and Taylor²used it successfully in 1863. In 1921 Blum³and Magnus-Levy⁴were able to show that potassium chloride could be administered safely by mouth in relatively large doses and that it produced frequently a satisfactory diuresis. Since then, McCann and his co-workers,⁵Osman⁶and Barker⁷have obtained similar results with potassium citrate, bicarbonate and chloride. Barker emphasized the importance of giving a diet in which the sodium content was low and that of potassium relatively high. It occurred to us in 1932 that potassium nitrate might be the salt of choice, if potassium itself should have an additional diuretic action to the well known effect of the nitrate