Abstract
Objective and design: High- tone external muscle stimulation (HTEMS) ameliorates pain and discomfort of patients with polyneuropathy. Since some patients reported about an urge to urinate during these treatments, the potential effects of HTEMS application on renal function were investigated.
For this purpose in healthy subjects, we analyzed in the current study the acute effects of electrotherapy on pa- rameters of renal function. Interventions: 24 healthy volunteers (14 women and 10 men), mean age 26 +- 4 years, were enrolled.
The protocol was composed of a run-in period, a pre-treatment period, the active HTEMS treatment period of both lower extremities and the post-treatment period. The duration of each period was 60 min.
Urine collection and blood samples were taken at the begin-ning and end of each period. To achieve a sufficient diuresis, the fluid intake was adapted to the amount of diuresis.
Param-eters of renal function included diuresis, glomerular filtration rate (endogenous cre- atinine clearance) and absolute and frac-tional sodium excretion. Moreover blood pressure and heart rate were monitored.
Results: HTEMS led to a significant in- crease of creatinine clearance and fractional sodium excretion which was limited to the active treatment period. Conclusion: These findings show for the first time that HTEMS can transiently increase glomerular filtra- tion rate associated with a decreased tu- bular sodium reabsorption.
The underlying mechanisms are to be elucidated.