New data suggest a link between skin sodium content and left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sodium levels in the skin of the calves of 99 patients with mild-to-moderate CKD correlated with both systolic blood pressure (BP) and left ventricular mass (LVM). Moreover skin sodium correlated more strongly with LVM than did total body overhydration (TBOH), and TBOH did not correlate with systolic BP. Linear regression analyses showed that skin sodium was an explanatory variable for LVM independent of BP and TBOH. The researchers suggest that reducing skin sodium content might improve cardiovascular outcomes in CKD.