High-salt intake affects sublingual microcirculation and is linked to body weight change in healthy volunteers: a randomized cross-over trial.

Background: The pathophysiology of salt-sensitive hypertension remains uncertain, but may involve microvascular alterations. High-salt intake decreases microvascular density in hypertensive patients, but due to lack of studies in normotensive patients the causal pathway remains unclear. We studied whether high-salt intake decreases sublingual microvascular density in normotensive individuals and assessed the influence of body weight on changes in microvascular density.