Plasma Renin and Angiotensin Levels in Human Hypertension following Treatment

1973 ◽  
Vol 45 (s1) ◽  
pp. 287s-290s
Author(s):  
C. I. Johnston ◽  
N. Anavekar ◽  
K. G. Chua ◽  
W. J. Louis

1. The levels of plasma renin activity or concentration and plasma angiotensin were similar in normotensive subjects and in untreated or treated essential hypertensives. 2. There was a close relationship between plasma renin activity and plasma renin concentration and between these and plasma angiotensin. This suggests that there were no abnormalities in renin substrate or renin kinetics in human essential hypertension. 3. Ganglion blockade did not change the plasma renin levels but α-adrenergic blockade caused a significant rise in plasma catecholamines and plasma renin without change in blood pressure. 4. Both acute and chronic β-adrenergic blockade were associated with a fall in blood pressure and small but significant falls in plasma renin levels.

1975 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-151
Author(s):  
C. S. Sweet ◽  
M. Mandradjieff

1. Renal hypertensive dogs were treated with hydrochlorothiazide (8−2 μmol/kg or 33 μmol/kg daily for 7 days), or timolol (4.6 μmol/kg daily for 4 days), a potent β-adrenergic blocking agent, or combinations of these drugs). Changes in mean arterial blood pressure and plasma renin activity were measured over the treatment period. 2. Neither drug significantly lowered arterial blood pressure when administered alone. Plasma renin activity, which did not change during treatment with timolol, was substantially elevated during treatment with hydrochlorothiazide. 3. When timolol was administered concomitantly with hydrochlorothiazide, plasma renin activity was suppressed and blood pressure was significantly lowered. 4. These observations suggest that compensatory activation of the renin-angiotensin system limits the antihypertensive activity of hydrochlorothiazide in renal hypertensive dogs and suppression of diuretic-induced renin release by timolol unmasks the antihypertensive effect of the diuretic.


1992 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Bouhnik ◽  
J. P. Richoux ◽  
H. Huang ◽  
F. Savoie ◽  
T. Baussant ◽  
...  

1. The renin-angiotensin and kinin-kallikrein systems of Dahl salt-sensitive and salt-resistant rats fed diets with different salt contents were analysed using biochemical and immunocytochemical techniques. 2. Blood pressure increased by 45% in salt-sensitive rats only, after 4 weeks on a high-salt diet. The plasma renin activity and plasma angiotensin II concentration remained at the same levels in salt-sensitive rats on the high-salt diet as on the normal salt diet, whereas the plasma renin activity and plasma angiotensin II concentration of salt-resistant rats fed the high-salt diet were lower. The plasma renin activity and the plasma angiotensin II concentration were elevated in both salt-resistant and salt-sensitive rats fed the salt-deficient diet but were much more elevated in salt-resistant than in salt-sensitive rats. 3. The kidney immunocytochemical data paralleled the data on plasma parameters. Salt-sensitive rats had fewer renin positive juxtaglomerular apparatuses than salt-resistant rats on the normal diet, and the increase on the sodium-deficient diet was also smaller in salt-sensitive rats. Salt-sensitive rats fed the high-salt diet and the standard diet had almost no angiotensin II immunoreactivity compared with the salt-resistant rats on the same diets. 4. The total renal kallikrein content of salt-sensitive rats was lower than that of salt-resistant rats on all three diets, as was the amount of kallikrein excreted in the urine on the standard and the high-salt diets. The differences resulted from a reduction in active kallikrein. The increase in kallikrein in salt-sensitive and salt-resistant rats on the salt-deficient diet was not significantly different. 5. There were similar changes in immunopositive kallikrein in the kidneys of salt-sensitive and salt-resistant rats with diet, with a large increase in kallikrein biosynthesis on the low-salt diet. The plasma concentration of high-molecular-mass kininogen was not significantly different in salt-sensitive and salt-resistant rats, but there was a significant increase in T-kininogen in salt-sensitive rats fed the high-salt diet. 6. In conclusion, the absence of decreases in the plasma renin activity and the plasma angiotensin II concentration in salt-sensitive rats fed the high-salt diet might partially explain the increase in blood pressure.


1980 ◽  
Vol 59 (s6) ◽  
pp. 319s-321s ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Leonetti ◽  
C. Bianchini ◽  
G. B. Picotti ◽  
A. Cesura ◽  
Letizia Caccamo ◽  
...  

1. Plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline concentrations and plasma renin activity were measured in 21 mothers at delivery and in their babies at birth (umbilical cord blood) and on days 1 and 5 of extrauterine life. 2. At birth plasma renin activity was significantly higher in the newborn than in mothers. Plasma renin activity increased further, but not significantly, on day 1 of life and significantly decreased on day 5. On day 5, 10 min head-up tilting caused no change in plasma renin activity. 3. Plasma noradrenaline in the newborn was higher than in mothers at birth and significantly decreased thereafter. Plasma adrenaline levels at birth were similar in the newborn and their mothers and significantly lower in the newborn in subsequent days. Tilting caused no increase in either plasma adrenaline or noradrenaline levels. 4. No correlation was found between plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline levels and plasma renin activity, or between noradrenaline, adrenaline or plasma renin activity and blood pressure.


1978 ◽  
Vol 55 (s4) ◽  
pp. 367s-371s ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bianchi ◽  
G. B. Picotti ◽  
G. Bracchi ◽  
D. Cusi ◽  
M. Gatti ◽  
...  

1. Almost all the factors that may cause a rise in blood pressure are, in turn, influenced by the increase in blood pressure per se. Thus any primary involvement of one or more of these factors in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension must be evaluated before or during the development of hypertension. 2. Young normotensive subjects both of whose parents are hypertensive have a much higher probability of developing hypertension than those whose parents are both normotensive. 3. The following measurements were made in 56 subjects of the first group (both parents hypertensive) and 35 of the second group (both parents normotensive), matched for age, sex and body surface area: renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate, using p-aminohippurate and inulin clearance; 24 h urinary excretion of aldosterone, protein and electrolytes; plasma renin activity; plasma volume. Plasma catecholamines and cardiac index were also measured in 26 subjects of the first group and 25 subjects of the second group using a radioenzymic method and echocardiography. 4. All these factors were similar in the two groups except that renal plasma flow was higher in the first group (767·2 ± 30 versus 650·7 ± 17 ml/min, P < 0·01). Plasma renin activity tended to be lower in subjects with a higher renal plasma flow, but there was no significant negative correlation between the two factors. 5. The possibility that the higher renal plasma flow in subjects with a high probability of developing hypertension is a compensatory mechanism for a primary intrarenal defect is discussed.


1982 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Swart ◽  
R. F. Bing ◽  
J. D. Swales ◽  
H. Thurston

1. Plasma renin activity, body weight and blood pressure were measured before and after 7 days' treatment with bendrofluazide in ten hypertensive subjects. They were then treated with bendrofluazide alone (5 mg daily) for a minimum of 3 years. The diuretic was then discontinued and the measurements were repeated before and again after 7 days with bendrofluazide. The results were compared with those obtained before chronic treatment with the diuretic. 2. Chronic diuretic treatment was associated with a persistent and progressive rise in plasma renin activity, that fell promptly to pretreatment levels when diuretics were discontinued. This was associated with significant weight gain but no immediate significant rise in blood pressure. 3. When acutely challenged with bendrofluazide the patients showed a greater increase in plasma renin activity on the second occasion than on the first. Three out of five patients with an initially subnormal response had normal responses after chronic diuretic treatment. 4. Chronic diuretic treatment increased the responsiveness of the juxtaglomerular apparatus in some hypertensive patients. 5. Classification of hypertensive patients into renin subgroups may be influenced by previous therapy, even when that therapy has been discontinued for 4 weeks. In particular ‘low renin hypertension’ may be masked by recent use of diuretics, as shown by three of the five patients in this subgroup in the present study.


1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 724-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gérald A. Porlier ◽  
Réginald A. Nadeau ◽  
Jacques de Champlain ◽  
Daniel G. Bichet

Circulating plasma catecholamines, plasma renin activity, and other variables were measured in unanesthetized dogs before and after chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA, 50 mg/kg). Chemical sympathectomy resulted in an immediate fall in mean arterial blood pressure and a delayed reduction in heart rate. Significant increases in plasma glucose and lactate concentrations, circulating plasma catecholamines, and plasma renin activity were found 24 h after 6-OHDA treatment. Circulating catecholamine levels decreased rapidly as time elapsed after sympathectomy and were half the initial values after 2 weeks. Plasma renin activity remained elevated during the 1st week after 6-OHDA treatment and returned to control levels during the 2nd week. Significant correlations were found between circulating catecholamines and heart rate mean arterial pressure, and plasma glucose and lactate concentrations. A significant correlation was also found between plasma renin activity and the mean arterial blood pressure. These results confirm that the adrenal medulla increases its catecholamine secretion rate into the circulation to compensate for the loss of adrenergic innervation after 6-OHDA treatment. They also indicate that the rennin–angiotensin system represents another important compensatory mechanism for circulatory homeostasis in sympathec-tomized animals.


1975 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 511-514
Author(s):  
J. Chodakowska ◽  
K. Nazar ◽  
B. Wocial ◽  
M. Jarecki ◽  
B. Skórka

1. The effect of physical exercise on blood pressure, plasma catecholamines and plasma renin activity was studied in fourteen patients with essential hypertension and in eight healthy subjects. 2. Resting plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline and plasma renin activity of the hypertensive patients did not differ from those of the control subjects. 3. In response to graded exercise producing successive heart rates of 120, 140 and 160 beats/min, significantly greater increases of blood pressure were found in the patients than in the control subjects. 4. Plasma noradrenaline increased significantly in both groups at all levels of exercise, the responses being significantly greater in the hypertensive patients. 5. The mean arterial blood pressure was significantly correlated with plasma noradrenaline concentration in the control subjects but not in the hypertensive patients. 6. In the hypertensive group plasma adrenaline increased significantly after exercise at all work loads whereas, in the control group, significant increase occurred only at the highest work load. The differences in the response of the two groups were significant at each work load. 7. Plasma renin activity increased significantly after exercise at the heart rate of 120 beats/min, both in the hypertensive patients and in the control subjects. The magnitude of the response was similar in the two groups.


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