Background/Aims: Dietary potassium (K⁺) has beneficial effects on blood pressure and cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. Recently, several epidemiological studies have revealed an association between urinary K⁺ excretion (as proxy for dietary intake) and better renal outcomes in subjects with chronic kidney disease (CKD). To address causality, we designed the “K⁺ in CKD” study. Methods: The K⁺ in CKD study is a multicenter, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial aiming to include 399 patients with hypertension, CKD stage 3b or 4 (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] 15–44 mL/min/1.73 m²), and an average eGFR decline > 2 mL/min/1.73 m²/year. As safety measure, all included subjects will start with a 2-week open-label phase of 40 mmol potassium chloride daily. Patients who do not subsequently develop hyperkalemia (defined as serum K⁺ >5.5 mmol/L) will be randomized to receive potassium chloride, potassium citrate (both K⁺ 40 mmol/day), or placebo for 2 years. The primary end point is the difference in eGFR after 2 years of treatment. Secondary end points include other renal outcomes (> 30% decrease in eGFR, doubling of serum creatinine, end-stage renal disease, albuminuria), ambulatory blood pressure, CV events, all-cause mortality, and incidence of hyperkalemia. Several measurements will be performed to analyze the effects of potassium supplementation, including body composition monitoring, pulse wave velocity, plasma renin and aldosterone concentrations, urinary ammonium, and intracellular K⁺ concentrations. Conclusion: The K⁺ in CKD study will demonstrate if K⁺ sup­plementation has a renoprotective effect in progressive CKD, and whether alkali therapy has additional beneficial effects.

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BackgroundObservational studies suggest that adequate dietary potassium intake (90–120 mmol/day) may be renoprotective, but the effects of increasing dietary potassium and the risk of hyperkalemia are unknown.MethodsThis is a prespecified analysis of the run-in phase of a clinical trial in which 191 patients (age 68±11 years, 74% males, 86% European ancestry, eGFR 31±9 ml/min per 1.73 m2, 83% renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, 38% diabetes) were treated with 40 mmol potassium chloride (KCl) per day for 2 weeks.ResultsKCl supplementation significantly increased urinary potassium excretion (72±24 to 107±29 mmol/day), plasma potassium (4.3±0.5 to 4.7±0.6 mmol/L), and plasma aldosterone (281 [198–431] to 351 [241–494] ng/L), but had no significant effect on urinary sodium excretion, plasma renin, BP, eGFR, or albuminuria. Furthermore, KCl supplementation increased plasma chloride (104±3 to 105±4 mmol/L) and reduced plasma bicarbonate (24.5±3.4 to 23.7±3.5 mmol/L) and urine pH (all P<0.001), but did not change urinary ammonium excretion. In total, 21 participants (11%) developed hyperkalemia (plasma potassium 5.9±0.4 mmol/L). They were older and had higher baseline plasma potassium.ConclusionsIn patients with CKD stage G3b–4, increasing dietary potassium intake to recommended levels with potassium chloride supplementation raises plasma potassium by 0.4 mmol/L. This may result in hyperkalemia in older patients or those with higher baseline plasma potassium. Longer-term studies should address whether cardiorenal protection outweighs the risk of hyperkalemia.Clinical trial number:NCT03253172

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