Neurogenic factors in low renin essential hypertension

Abstract

The interrelationships between blood pressure, plasma catecholamines and plasma renin activity (PRA) were studied in 12 patients with low PRA, in 18 patients with essential hypertension and normal PRA and in 11 normal subjects, after being supine for 1 hour, standing 1 hour and after the oral administration of furosemide, 80 mg. Patients with low PRA were older and had higher (p < 0.05) mean blood pressure levels (113 ± 4.2 mg Hg) than patients with normal PRA (103 ± 1.9 mm Hg). Plasma norepinephrine levels were 145 ± 14 ng/liter in normal volunteer subjects, 202 ± 25 ng/liter in hypertensive subjects with normal PRA and 203 ± 26 ng/liter in hypertensive subjects with low PRA. The increase of plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine after standing 1 hour and after the administration of furosemide was similar in hypertensive subjects with low or normal PRA and in normal volunteer subjects. However, the increase in PRA after standing or after the administration of furosemide was significantly reduced in patients with low PRA. These data suggest that patients with low PRA have a normally responsive sympathetic nervous system and that the low PRA may be due to a defective renin response to the sympathetic nerve stimulation. Blood pressure was significantly correlated with plasma catecholamines in normal volunteer subjects (r = 0.71, p < 0.05) and in the hypertensive patients (r = 0.49, p < 0.05). An analysis of the regression lines for the two groups suggests that increased vascular reactivity to catecholamines may account for the increased blood pressure at each level of catecholamines in hypertensive subjects as compared to normal volunteer subjects. Basal plasma aldosterone levels were similar in patients with low and with normal PRA. Norepinephrine clearance was lower in hypertensive than in normotensive subjects.