The Value of Plasma Renin Concentration Per Se, and in Relation to Plasma and Extracellular Fluid Volume in Diagnosis and Prognosis of Human Renovascular Hypertension

1970 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 559-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bianchi ◽  
L. Campolo ◽  
A. Vegeto ◽  
V. Pietra ◽  
U. Piazza

1. Plasma renin concentration (PRC) has been measured in 212 hypertensive patients. In fourteen patients with essential hypertension and in seventeen patients with renovascular hypertension, plasma volume (PV) and extracellular fluid volume (ECFV) were measured. 2. The results obtained have been discussed in three ways: (a) PRC in relation to the aetiology of hypertension; (b) PRC in relation to the effect on blood pressure of surgery for unilateral renal diseases; (c) PRC, PV and ECFV in ‘essential’ and renovascular hypertension. 3. Excluding patients with ophthalmoscopic signs of malignant hypertension, PRC is significantly higher in renovascular hypertension than in normal subjects and patients suffering from ‘essential’ hypertension and hypertension associated with bilateral renal disease; but the overlapping of the single values of the patients with these diseases is marked. Thus a normal PRC has no diagnostic value, while a high PRC without sodium deficiency or retinopathy might favour a diagnosis of renovascular disease. 4. In twenty-seven out of thirty-three patients submitted to surgery for unilateral renal disease and followed up for 12 months or longer, blood pressure has been significantly reduced. This group includes twelve patients with a normal preoperative PRC and fifteen patients with a high PRC. These results clearly demonstrate that unilateral renal disease may maintain a high blood pressure without increasing PRC and that PRC has no prognostic value. 5. Concurrent estimations of PRC, PV and ECFV in patients with renovascular or essential hypertension revealed the following differences. In cases of renovascular hypertension with normal PRC, PV and ECFV were significantly increased while in those with raised PRC, PV did not differ and ECFV was barely raised with respect to values obtained in patients with essential hypertension. PV of renovascular patients with normal renin was significantly higher than that of renovascular patients with high renin. The analysis of these results with quadratic discriminant functions demonstrated that an integrated evaluation of blood pressure, PV, ECFV and PRC allows a separation between the two types of hypertension. In other words these factors, taken together, in some way seem to reflect a difference between the two diseases. These results may indicate a new type of approach to the diagnosis and prognosis of renovascular hypertension.

1972 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bianchi ◽  
C. Ponticelli ◽  
U. Bardi ◽  
B. Redaelli ◽  
L. Campolo ◽  
...  

1. Blood pressure, plasma renin concentration, exchangeable body sodium, plasma volume and extracellular fluid volume were measured in five patients on maintenance haemodialysis for end-stage renal disease in whom hypertension was relatively easy to control by the combination of dialysis and restriction of salt intake. Measurements were made on three occasions: on a free salt intake the day before dialysis; on a low salt intake the day after dialysis; on a free salt intake the day before dialysis after nephrectomy. 2. The fall of blood pressure after haemodialysis and salt intake restriction was accompanied by a decrease of exchangeable body sodium and body fluids while plasma renin concentration increased. The fall of blood pressure after bilateral nephrectomy was accompanied by a fourfold decrease of plasma renin without any change of the other variables. 3. The hypertension of these patients might thus be considered ‘salt and water dependent’ or ‘renin dependent’ according to the means used to decrease blood pressure.


1974 ◽  
Vol 48 (s2) ◽  
pp. 69s-71s
Author(s):  
G. G. Geyskes ◽  
P. Boer ◽  
F. H. H. Leenen ◽  
E. J. Dorhout Mees

1. In nineteen patients, five with unilateral renal artery stenosis and fourteen with essential hypertension (WHO grades I–II), blood pressure, plasma and extracellular fluid volumes and plasma renin activity were studied at the end of three sequential periods: (a) after at least 3 days on a 60 mmol Na+ diet; (b) after 3 days of salt depletion induced with a diuretic and sustained on a 20 mmol Na+ diet; (c) after 3 days during which the 20 mmol Na+ diet was continued and beta-receptor blockade was induced by increasing dosages of propranolol up to 320 mg daily. 2. After sodium depletion extracellular fluid volume and plasma volume decreased and plasma renin activity increased; blood pressure did not change significantly. 3. After adding propranolol, plasma volume and extracellular fluid volume remained low, and there was a significant decrease in plasma renin activity and blood pressure. 4. No correlation could be demonstrated between changes of blood pressure and plasma renin activity. 5. When the responses of the five patients with renal artery stenosis were compared with those of the fourteen patients with essential hypertension, no significant differences were found. 6. Propranolol has a strong anti-hypertensive effect after Na+ depletion, irrespective of the absolute activities of plasma renin.


1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
A. M. Khokhar ◽  
J. D. H. Slater ◽  
T. P. Jowett ◽  
N. N. Payne

1. Suppression of the renin—aldosterone system by expansion of the extracellular fluid volume with extra sodium and mineralocorticoid for 6 days was studied in nine young men with very mild essential hypertension and in ten normotensive young men. 2. Plasma renin activity, measured both supine and after 45° head-up tilt, and the renal excretion of aldosterone 18-glucuronide were similar in both groups. However, after expansion of the extracellular fluid volume, hypertensive patients showed much less suppression of both variables. 3. This difference persisted despite matching for an equivalent degree of expansion of the extracellular fluid volume as indexed by the change in body weight. 4. Administration of extra sodium and mineralocorticoid produced a greater proportional fall of renal aldosterone excretion than of plasma renin activity in both groups and this dissociation was significantly more marked in the hypertensive group. 5. We suggest that (i) a relative autonomy of the renin—aldosterone system may be relevant to the pathogenesis and/or perpetuation of essential hypertension and (ii) that the syndrome of low-renin hypertension is unlikely to be associated with ‘mineralocorticoid’ excess.


1979 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 401-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. P. Wilkinson ◽  
I. K. Smith ◽  
Helen Moodie ◽  
Lucilla Poston ◽  
R. Williams

1. The mineralocorticoid 9α-fluorohydrocortisone was given to 12 patients with cirrhosis without ascites. In seven an ‘escape’ from its sodium-retaining effects was observed, the other five continuing to retain sodium. 2. Changes in plasma renin activity (PRA) and inulin clearance (Cinulin) were used in the assessment of possible changes in the ‘effective’ extracellular fluid volume. PRA fell and Cinulin increased to a similar extent in each of the two groups of patients. These findings do not support the concept that the failure to show the mineralocorticoid escape in some patients with cirrhosis is due to a failure of expansion of the effective extracellular fluid volume. 3. Sodium reabsorption in the different segments of the nephron as estimated by clearance techniques under conditions of maximal water diuresis showed that the greatest changes to account for both mineralocorticoid escape and sodium retention were in the part of the nephron beyond the diluting segment.


1972 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Sederberg-Olsen ◽  
H. Ibsen

1. In ten patients with essential hypertension treated with propranolol (320 mg daily for 4 months) plasma volume and extracellular fluid volume were determined. 2. A significant increase in extracellular fluid volume (ECFV) was found, but there was no significant change in plasma volume. 3. The genesis of the increase found in ECFV is briefly discussed.


1975 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Padfield ◽  
M. E. M. Allison ◽  
J. J. Brown ◽  
A. F. Lever ◽  
R. G. Luke ◽  
...  

1. Intravenous frusemide produced in normal subjects a prompt rise of plasma renin concentration which correlated with urinary sodium. 2. The renin response to frusemide was suppressed in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism. 3. In patients with low-renin hypertension and normal renin essential hypertension, the renin response to frusemide was similarly suppressed. 4. Suppression of the renin response to frusemide is therefore a feature of hypertension not confined to patients with primary hyperaldosteronism and low-renin hypertension. 5. Thus low-renin hypertension does not appear to constitute a distinct diagnostic entity. 6. It is suggested that suppression of the renin response is part of a long-term renal adaptation to high blood pressure.


1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 557-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ch. Simon ◽  
M. E. Safar ◽  
J. A. Levenson ◽  
N. E. Aboras ◽  
J. M. Alexandre ◽  
...  

1972 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Bianchi ◽  
E. Baldoli ◽  
R. Lucca ◽  
P. Barbin

1. The renal artery was constricted leaving the opposite kidney intact in ten conscious and seven anaesthetized dogs. Intravenous infusion of exogenous renin was done in seven conscious dogs; in four of these the renal artery was constricted 15–17 days later. The following variables were measured in all animals before and after renal artery constriction: plasma renin concentration, blood pressure, cumulative sodium balance, plasma volume, extracellular fluid volume and plasma non-protein nitrogen. Before and after renal artery constriction in the conscious dogs cardiac output, stroke volume, total peripheral resistance and cardiac rate were also measured. In a few dogs angiotensin responsiveness and plasma concentration of renin substrate were also measured. 2. There was no significant difference between the regression of change in blood pressure on change in plasma renin concentration within 2 h from renal artery constriction in the conscious dogs and that observed during intravenous infusion of renin. Comparing the changes of these variables with the ones previously obtained with renal artery constriction to the lone remaining kidney, for a given increase of plasma renin concentration the rise of blood pressure was lower when the contralateral kidney was untouched. The changes of the other variables in the conscious dogs may be divided into three phases: a first phase lasting hours, in which, besides the changes described above, there was an increase of total peripheral resistance while the other variables remain unchanged: a second phase, 24 h after constriction, in which blood pressure, total peripheral resistance and plasma renin clearance decreased while plasma volume, cardiac output and extracellular fluid volume slightly increased; however, only the plasma volume change was statistically significant: and a third phase 6–7 days after constriction, when all the variables returned towards normal values, except that the blood pressure and total peripheral resistance remained significantly higher. Sodium balance remained at equilibrium throughout the study period. It is suggested that these results are compatible with the ‘autoregulation theory’ of renal hypertension. 3. Renal artery constriction in the anaesthetized animals caused a slight but significant sodium retention that very likely influenced the sequence of the events. On the second day after constriction, the plasma renin concentration was significantly increased, whereas the highest values of blood pressure, plasma volume and extracellular fluid volume occurred on the seventh day after constriction.


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