Abstract: Salt is related to occurrence and development of hypertension. As an important type of essential hypertension, salt-sensitive hypertension, which means blood pressure rises with more salt intake, is main cause of high incidence rate in many regions in China. The major mechanism is abnormality in both ion transport in cell membrane and sodium excretion in the kidney. Kidney and central nervous system are key systems to induce salt-sensitive hypertension. The pathogenesis includes heredity, ion transport, endothelial dysfunction, kidney, sympathetic and central nervous system, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system(RAAS), endocrine, insulin resistance and so on. The prognosis of salt-sensitive hypertension may be improved by either changing food habits or pharmacotherapy. This review focuses on salt-sensitive hypertension's cause, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment.

Key words: salt, hypertension, salt-sensitive hypertension