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Barry J. Materson, MD
Miami

Arch Intern Med. 1986;146(3):603.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

I thank Dr Rosen for his comments that were based on data presented by Kaplan and co-workers.¹ Those data suggest that small, but potentially clinically important, further reductions in blood pressure might be achieved by potassium supplementation for hypertensive patients with diuretic-induced hypokalemia. As the authors point out, the patients were largely overweight black women "who acquired overt hypokalemia during long-term diuretic therapy" and who "may... not have been representative of the majority of hypertensives, who do not do so."¹

Black hypertensive subjects tend to have a dietary deficiency of potassium² and there is an inverse correlation between their urinary potassium excretion and blood pressure.³ It appears logical that the arterial pressure of this population subset might be responsive to potassium supplementation. I would have agreed with Dr Rosen if he had suggested that black hypertensive patients who have diuretic-induced hypokalemia and who have not achieved . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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